Stargate SG-Fox
by Commander Kitsune
Summary: Follows the movies and TV series. SI. One day, an Ancient from the universe of Stargate pulls me from my home world into her universe to lead the Tau'ri through the Stargate network as the leader of their most famous team. OC/Harem
1. PB: Chapter 1: A Visitor

**Stargate SG: Fox**

**Prelude Book: Where It All Starts**

**Chapter 1: A Visitor**

* * *

-] November 28th – 2012 [-

"Man! I'm so bored! The Last of Us is taking so damn long to come out! It's not fair!" I cried out in mental agony.

I had just finished playing the complete Mass Effect trilogy for the fourth time and by now I was completely sick of playing the games to pass the time until the newest Naughty Dog game was released. I had also watched all 6 Star Wars movies, the Clone Wars series, all of Stargate SG-1 seasons, watched some Naruto, Lie to Me, Fringe, played a few Final Fantasy games, some Dragon Age 2, Black Ops 2 and I was still bored!

"I'll go for a walk. That always helps," I said to my empty house. The house didn't reply back, but I wasn't expecting it to. And so with that declaration, I got off the couch, picked up my cracked iPhone and earphones, and walked out the door.

* * *

-] In an alternate reality, observing Jack O'Neil [-

A single entity, known as an Ancient, watched as Jack sat on the edge of a small bed, turning a gun in his hands.

The Ancient, a young woman with flame red waist length hair with two side plats and large, round glasses, watched this silent interaction between man and gun. She wore simple white robes.

'He's been doing that for three hours now. I still wonder why Lady Amaterasu wanted me to watch this guy. He's just moping around. She didn't even tell me why he was so depressed,' the woman wondered to herself. She looked around the room and saw that it belonged to a child. Or did.

'I guess the kid died and that's what this guy's sad about,' she thought as she turned back to the man, only to see him shove the pistol into his mouth and pull the trigger. There was a loud bang.

'Oh god!' the Ancient thought as she recoiled from the sight in front of her. 'L-Lady Amaterasu will want to know about this!' She then disappeared into thin air, just as a second, blonde woman, came rushing in and began to cry out in pain and sadness.

* * *

-] Back with Me [-

I had no idea of these things happening right at this moment. How could I? And so I was fully enjoying my walk in the late afternoon.

* * *

-] Back with the Ancient nerdy looking lady [-

The Ancient materialised onto a small patio at the beach. There was currently a sunset and the red, orange and yellow colours were splayed all over the sky.

The red haired woman looked around to see another woman wearing white robes. However her hair was pure white, wavy, and reached down to her waist. She was currently sitting at a small glass table on the patio and was sipping what looked like tea.

"M-My Lady," the first woman stuttered as she walked up to the second one. The white haired lady looked around and as she saw her, she smiled softly.

"Matsu, is something the matter?" she asked in a young, lilting voice. She sounded quite young, but her body said another. As she stood up to face the red haired Ancient, it became clear how very curvy her body was. Even though the loose robes on her created quite a bit of modesty, her DD-cup breasts still pressed up against her robe quite a bit. But she was short, only 5'3". She had azure blue eyes and her heart shaped, kind face showed off her flawless milky white skin. But her robe hid most and kept her modesty to a maximum. But even so, she was extremely beautiful, like an angel.

"My Lady... the man you wished me to keep an eye on this morning... he, uh...," Matsu stumbled clumsily, not entirely sure on how to phrase what she had just seen.

"Did something happen to Jack O'Neil?" Amaterasu asked. Matsu nodded.

"He, uhh... shot himself. He's dead," Matsu replied.

Amaterasu's eyes widened in shock and began to pace back and forth. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shity, shit, shit, shit, damn, fuck, crap, shit! This is not good. Not good at all. I don't suppose the Others tried to interfere?" she asked before shaking her head. "Of course they didn't. Despite the dangers that loom on the horizon, they still just stand by like a bunch of blowhard jackasses while the one man that matters the most in this galaxy for the next 15 years, dies. Idiots!" She then calmed down and took a deep breath.

"Ok. I'm going to go see an old friend to see if he can help me locate a replacement," Amaterasu said. "You continue to observe Terra and let me know if any new developments happen. I'll most likely be searching for the new recruit in another reality, so you can reach me on my phone," she explained as she held up what looked like a white iPhone 5.

"Gotcha my Lady," Matsu replied as she dug into one of her pockets and pulled out a black iPhone 4.

"Very good," Amaterasu replied before they both vanished.

* * *

-] With Amaterasu [-

The white haired woman materialised inside a large building, in front of a giant red skinned ogre sitting in front of a desk, going through a large stack of paperwork.

"Hello King Yemma," she called out. The ogre looked over his latest paperwork stack and spotted the woman.

"Oh, hello there Amaterasu. Don't usually see you round here in these parts. In fact, you're the only Ancient powerful enough to get here by yourself. I assume it's about Jack O'Neil?" King Yemma asked.

"How did you know?" the white haired Ancient asked.

"He checked in not two minutes before you showed up. He's already on his way to heaven," the King explained.

"Well, I need a replacement for him. You know how important Jack is to my Milky Way galaxy," she said. "I just need a human."

"Why a human? Wouldn't a saiyan be better? Like one of Goku's descendants?" Yemma asked.

"Nah, they are needed right where they are. Besides, getting one would be seriously overkill for this job. I need someone fresh and new. Someone like..."

* * *

-] Back with Me [-

I sneezed loudly as I walked back home in the sunset. "Crap. Someone's talking about me," I muttered as I blocked one nostril and blew hard through my nose while leaning off to the side, ridding all the snot that sneeze had dislodged before doing the same with the other nostril. Hey, it's nasty, I know, but it needs to be done and I didn't have anything to blow it on except for the lawn next to me.

I stopped for a moment to look at the beginnings of a brilliant sunset. I loved sunsets. And thunderstorms. And sexy women, but who doesn't? Except for gay guys and I was certainly not gay.

"I could go for a juice right about now. I wonder if the IGA supermarket is still open?" I said to myself. Yeah, I did talk to myself. It's not like I had a beautiful girlfriend to say these things to.

So I turned my back to the young sunset and made my way to the shop.

* * *

-] Back with Amaterasu [-

Amaterasu moved invisible through the lands of the Earth she was directed to by King Yemma. This Earth was your average Joe Earth with average humans. It had been a very long time since anyone worthy enough to be called a hero had come along. Oh sure, there were the usual soldier heroes for saving a kid from some crossfire, or the firefighters who saved a family form their burning house, but no-one who could say that they had saved the world, or even saved their nation from some evil. The Stargate network, the Ancients, the Goa'uld, the Ori; they didn't exist here.

"It seems that this city is no good either. Why did King Yemma send me to find Jack's replacement from this Earth?" Amaterasu sighed. But as she was about to teleport to the next area on her mental list, she spotted a person walking out of a shop sipping a box juice of Ribena.

"Who's that?" she wondered out loud, even though no-one could hear her thanks to her being phased out. She floated down to get a closer look.

The person in question was a man of about 24 years old. He sported upper back length, black hair with the fringe and bangs framing his face. He had brown eyes, an uneven stubble on his face, was slightly overweight, bout 5'11" tall and wore blue jeans with a black leather belt, a white t-shirt, a black jumper hoodie, cheap black boots and a real silver Vincent Valentine Cerberus pendant around his neck. As the gorgeous Ancient observed this human, he took a large swig of the Ribena through the straw. He looked like the average unemployed guy.

Amaterasu used her powers to access his memories, to get a feel of what he was like. She just skimmed them to find out his personality as looking directly into someone's memories was a large violation of a person. But if you skimmed, then you weren't violating them.

It seemed that the man's name was Josh Kitsuné. He had changed his name a few years ago as he disliked his original one. He had grown up in an unstable parental relationship. At three years old his parents split up and he stayed mostly with his mother for the next 10 years, visiting his father on weekends and holidays. His mother moved around the place, at first staying within the city the boy was born in, but gradually moving further and further away.

She met a new man over the phone and they fell in love. Josh was then pulled along to moving 400km away from his home city to meet his step father. Unlike other relationships with step-parents, where the child would always remain distrustful, the two got along instantly and were best friends. The man had two daughters, whom the boy also got along with very well.

More moving around before the next half of an agreement the child was unaware of came into phase. At age thirteen he was to be given over to his dad for the next 10 years until he could choose for himself where to go. The child was dreadfully sad on his first night away from his mother, and cried for a long time as he looked into the starry night before finally crying himself to sleep-

Amaterasu shook her head. Sometimes a particularly strong memory would jump out and remain in the scanner's mind for the whole memory before moving onto the others. She refocused and continued.

The times spent with the boy's father were some of the loneliest times of his life. Within two years, his mother had come to rest her feet in a faraway place on the other side of the country. She invited her son over for Christmas and found out what kind of life her child was having. An unhappy life. So she invited him to stay with her and the step-dad. The boy agreed.

After three months of him transferring over to his mother's, his father died of diabetes and lung cancer from smoking.

His high school memories were confusing at times. At one point he thought he had found love, but it turned out to be just a fling. Then he moved to the nearby capital city for collage, and again, thought he had found love. But the girl betrayed him, sending him into a subtle depression he was only just beginning to break away from.

He finished Year 12 despite skipping two thirds of it with his best friend, and spent the next five years switching from studying and trying to find work. Throughout this time he didn't know what to do with his life. He started up writing; fanfictions at first, before writing the beginnings of his first original novel. Within this time he received a nice inheritance, but the money quickly disappeared. Some went on building a deck at his parent's house. Some of it went on a trip around his country which only reached a quarter of the way round. And the rest went on buying things, both for himself and others.

And that was where he was currently at the present. He seemed to be a completely normal 24 year old young man. His personality was loving and caring. He was trusting, maybe a bit too trusting at times, and had a great sense of humour. He was generous, but lazy at times. He was quite the pervert, but remained gentlemanly and respectful in his opinion of women. A total okatu. And yet...

"There's something about him," Amaterasu murmured to herself as she watched the man, who by now had reached his home, a small unit that comprised of a very small kitchen, lounge room which had the bed in it, the bedroom which was used as a spare bedroom for when his step-father would come stay the night and watch anime with Josh, and a small bathroom. There was a large TV screen at the foot of his bed, to which his computer and gaming consoles were hooked up to and a large speaker setup. A small pile of dishes were placed on a table alongside his bed, and his computer, a large, powerful but outdated laptop, gently hummed away. Currently the desktop wallpaper was showing on his TV; a picture of a giant cigar shaped ship where if she looked closely, she could see an insignia and four letters over the top painted on the back near the engines, 'UNSC'.

"I guess I should do the dishes before making dinner," Josh said to himself before picking up the stack of dirty dishes and moving to the kitchen. Amaterasu followed him unknowingly. It really was a small kitchen.

"Man, I've been here for two years and I still think this is a tiny kitchen. I need space when cooking and doing the stuff you usually do in a kitchen," he muttered to himself. He then stopped and moved out of the kitchen, unknowingly walking right through Amaterasu, who was still out of phase.

Josh selected the iTunes window and pressed play before moving back to the kitchen. "This is better," he smiled as some Chillout Session flowed out of the speakers. As Josh beatboxed along while washing the dishes, Amaterasu found herself nodding to the music. She was surprised at first, but after awhile she wasn't. It really was a good song. (Only Love by Ben Howard)

After the dishes were done, he began his dinner preparation which was tuna, pasta, cheese and tomato sauce mixed together. As soon as the water was boiling and the pasta was in, he moved over to his bed and reached for his own black screen cracked iPhone 3GS. Setting the timer, he sat in his bed and clicked a new window, showing the contents of a large external hard drive. After several clicks he had opened a video file and settled back to watch it. Amaterasu floated into the room to see the kind of video displayed, and blinked in shock.

There, on the screen, was the title Stargate SG-1. She was shocked at seeing him, but she was even more shocked to hear what Josh said.

"Guess I'll watch SG-1 kick ass to Apophis again," sighed Josh.

'This boy knows about SG-1?' Amaterasu thought. 'How much?' She delved into Josh's mind, but this time looking directly for any info pertaining to the legendary team of SG-1. And she found a lot. Even though it was only a TV show, almost every moment of it was the same. And he was armed with the precise knowledge of every major event in the next 12 years for the Milky Way galaxy in her universe, as well as the knowledge of five years in the Pegasus Galaxy after Jack would have become General. She grinned. "Now I understand. Yammu you old fox you," she said.

She then decided that this man would be the one to lead and guide SG-1 through their missions. She began to get hopeful and excited. She then looked down at her white robe. "I can't meet him wearing this. He'll think that I'm a religion nut," she giggled. She then whisked outside to prepare.

* * *

-] Back with Josh [-

I sighed as I brought up the video file that was the Pilot episode of Stargate SG-1, also known as 'Children of the Gods'. I really had nothing better to watch. I had only recently watched the Atlantis spin-off and there was no way in hell he was going to watch the crap that was Universe. I yawned, debating on whether I should have a coffee or not. A coffee would keep me awake for dinner, but would keep me awake until 2 in the morning. But if I didn't have one, then I would probably feel like going to sleep before dinner was done.

"Coffee it is!" I said dramatically. I got out of bed and moved back into the very small kitchen. I flicked on the kettle and I was about to prepare the first stages of my caffeine charge, when someone knocked on the door.

"Wonder who that is at this hour?" I muttered as I dropped the teaspoon and walked over to the door. I opened it.

"Hell...o?" I trailed off at the sight of what, or rather, who, was in front of me.

The person standing in front of me was exceedingly beautiful. More beautiful than any other woman I had ever seen before. She had wavy pure white hair that reached all the way down to her waist. Azure blue eyes set into a young looking heart shaped face gazed at me. She was shorter than me, bout 5'3", and she had smooth looking milky white skin. Her lips were shaded in a glossy lavender pink lipstick.

She wore a beige long sleeved top with a loose turtle neck that was tight around her breasts, I judged them to be a DD-cup, and a chocolate brown maxi pencil skirt that was very form fitting at the top but slightly looser than normal on the lower half. On her feet she wore light brown high heeled sandals. She looked like a secretary for some very famous fashion company.

'What's a woman like her doing outside my room?' I thought to myself.

"Uhh, hello there. I'm Josh Kitsuné. Is there something I can help you with?" I asked kindly but curiously, swallowing once as my eyes darted over her large breasts quickly.

She smiled, and my legs almost gave out on me. "Yes, there is. Can I come inside?" she asked.

"Uhhh," I stalled as I peeked behind me to see the state of my room. It wasn't its usual messiness, but you could never be too neat and tidy when it came to women. Especially the ones that looked like they were sent from heaven. "Sure... I guess." I stepped out of the way to let her in.

"Thank you," she nodded at me and walked past me. I got a whiff of her and smiled. 'She sure smells nice,' I thought to myself. I closed the door and was about to offer her a seat when the sound of water boiling furiously caught my ears.

"Uh, would you like a coffee? Or maybe some tea?" I offered as I cleared a chair for her to sit in.

"Some tea would be wonderful. You wouldn't have any Rooibos African tea, would you?" she asked.

"Actually, I do. My mom loves the stuff," I replied as I fished out a tea bag and mug from the cupboard, made her tea and my coffee and gave her the cup.

"Thank you Josh," she said as I placed my coffee on the table and sat on the bed.

"You're very welcome," I smiled. 'I wonder if she belongs to a company that's doing a survey?' I thought as I was still baffled by why she was here.

"So, umm..." I began, "what can I do for you Miss.. uh...?" I realised that I didn't even know her name.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Amaterasu, but you can call me Amy," she introduced.

"...Amaterasu. As in the name of the Japanese Shinto Sun Goddess Amaterasu?" I asked.

"That's right," she smiled. "You know your mythology it seems."

'Yeah right. She should be named Aphrodite,' I thought to myself. "I've always been interested in myths," I added out loud. 'I wonder if she's selling something, and the company are hoping to use her looks to help sell whatever it is they're selling. If so, I'd fucking sell my soul ten times over to have her in my life as a constant.'

"Well, I'm actually what you would call and Ancient. I don't come from this universe. I come from a similar one where a very important man has just died and I need someone's help to replace them as he was the most important man in my galaxy for the next 15 years; instrumental in the survival of the galaxy."

I blinked once, twice, three times.

"Huh?"

"I know this all sounds so fantastic and unbelievable, but it's the truth," she said in a very serious tone.

'Wow... she's completely bonkers. Never would have thought that from someone as beautiful as her. I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover,' I thought.

"Ok... can you prove to me that you're Lantian? Or an Ancient? Or whatever you're called," I asked, thinking that I had her caught out.

She nodded and my eyes widened as she turned into glowing white energy. "Holy shit! You really are an Ancient!" I gasped as the energy condensed back into her former form. "And you're really..." I swallowed hard. "_The_ Amaterasu? Not that Goa'uld ripoff?"

"That's right," she nodded.

I suddenly felt unworthy to be in her presence. Here was, literally, the Shinto Sun Goddess, sitting in my room and drinking my tea. And she was dressed like a totally normal person. She even acted like a normal woman.

"W-well," I stuttered before swallowing my sudden nerves. Not an easy feat. "Why are you here then? In my house. Talking to me."

"Because I need your help in saving my galaxy," she replied.

"You need _my_ help?" I asked, completely shocked for the third time today.

"Yes. I believe you are the one who will command the greatest team in the galaxy and save it time and again," she said.

"Me? Command a team that saves the galaxy? Yeah, in my dreams," I muttered the last part.

"It's true. I can sense that you can become a strong leader, someone who can command respect from his subordinates. Someone who will stay strong and brave against any odds. I know that you are this person," Amy urged me.

"Oh come on! I'm just a poor guy scraping his way through life. I'm not even working at the moment! I can't become someone like that! As much as I want to help you and get away from this life, you've got the wrong guy. I'll just end up disappointing you. I'll fail," I said, my voice getting softer and softer until I just whispered the end bit. I hung my head slightly, wondering how on earth she could see these qualities inside of me when they don't even exist.

A pair of soft hands placed themselves on my face and I looked up to see her large, azure blue eyes gaze right into me. I could see nothing but trust in them. "How can you trust me so much, when I haven't done anything remotely close to what you're describing?"

"Because I see it within you. You are brave and strong in spirit. This is what I see in you. You're just gonna have to trust me," she smiled.

There was a lengthy pause.

"...Well, if you're sure, then I guess I'll help you. Now tell me the details."

Amy smiled brilliantly and released her hands on my face as she sat down. I immediately missed the feel of her hands but now was not the time. I needed to learn exactly what was happening.

"Well, as you know, I am an Ancient. Therefore I come from a universe that has Stargates seeded throughout the many galaxies. I've been able to see roughly 30 years into the future, and I see SG-1 save the galaxy time and time again."

"So SG-1 really does exist," I asked.

"That's right. Jack O'Neil, Daniel Jackson, Samantha Carter, Teal'c, General Hammond, Jonas Quinn, Janet Fraiser, Walter, Bra'tac, Jacob, Selmak, Apophis, Anubis, Ba'al and the others are real in my universe."

"Wow... I wonder if they look alike to the Stargate SG-1 actors here," I wondered.

"They do. It's quite funny really. In my world they are saving the galaxy and in yours they are actors in a TV series about the exact same thing. I guess that's the Multiverse for you. I'm thinking it has to do with the bleed through effect present in all alternate realities," she giggled.

"I guess it is," I replied, smiling. "So who died?"

Amy was silent for a moment. "Jack O'Neil."

"What!?" I exclaimed. "Jack died? How?"

"After his son shot himself with Jack's gun by accident, Jack went into a deep depression. I assigned another Ancient to observe him. However the loss was too much for him to bear, and so he shot himself through the head. I completely did not expect that at all."

I was shocked. To think that Jack O'Neil actually did that. I always thought he was stronger than that. Then again, he was willing to blow himself up with the nuke in the movie. "This is a lot to take in, Amy. You're saying that I have to take command of _the_ SG-1?"

"That's right," Amy replied.

"But I don't have the physical or mental training needed to become a soldier," I said.

"Don't worry about that. I can take care of that in the time it'll take you to get signed up with General West for the mission," she assured.

"Really? ...sweet," I grinned.

"See," Amy grinned as she pushed me in a friendly manner. "You're getting into it now. Already you're displaying bravery in thinking about leading SG-1 and all the adventures you'll be going on."

"Sure, _now_ I am. I'm sure, when the time comes, I'll be screaming like a little sissy," I replied, causing the white haired Ancient to giggle.

"So what kind of training will I get?" I asked.

She tapped me on the nose and winked at me, an action I found to be very cute. "You'll see soon enough."

I blushed and gave a shy smile, before a thought came to me. "Can't you do all this yourself?" I asked. "Not that I don't want to help you, but... you see where I'm going with this?"

"I do. We Ancients still have our highest law of no direct interference. We don't want to become gods after all, even though we are still viewed as such. But by getting a human from another universe, giving him the tools and plonking him in our universe, I can work my way around that rule. I don't want to sit by and watch everyone in my universe to essentially become a slave to the Goa'uld, or the Replicators, or our Ori brothers and sisters. That is why I don't do this myself," she explained.

"I see. Good loophole that," I grinned.

"It sure is. Now, before we go, is there anything you would like to change about yourself? I will need you to be fit and capable of physical fighting, obviously," she asked.

"Well I would like to be muscled and strong, like a ninja. Can you change my physique to the type Ryu Hayabusa has? And change my eyes to violet?" I asked. She nodded and placed her hands on my chest. She began to glow with light and, in turn, so did I. I didn't feel anything throughout the whole process. But when it was all over, my clothes now hung on my very fit body. They were way too big for me.

"Damn. Now I'll need to buy new clothes," I sighed as I ran my hand over my opposite bicep, and was very impressed. It was firm and big, but not like a bodybuilder. Like a ninja's. Perfect.

"Sweet!" I exclaimed before I dashed over to the mirror in my bathroom, holding up my pants as I did so. I looked into the mirror and saw exotic violet irises look back at me. My face was no longer round and pudgy, but sharp, angled and very handsome. My stubble beard was now completely even and my hairstyle now suited me. "Wow! I look so freaking awesome!" I tied my pants up tighter and walked out again. "Thanks so much Amy."

"No problem. You're helping me a lot by taking up the task so it's the least I could do," she smiled. "Is there anything you want to bring?"

"Is there a house where we are going? Somewhere on Earth?" I asked.

"Yes, there is a house where we'll be staying at. It's the house that Jack gets after becoming a permanent team member in SG-1, in Colorado Springs near Cheyenne Mountain. You'll also have a substantial bank account balance for anything you may need to buy," Amy said.

"Wow. Well then can we just transport everything here to the house?" I asked.

"You'll only need to take personal things; items you want to take, not need. The house is already fitted with everything needed to live. We can shop for clothes there as well," she said.

After half an hour of listing all the things I wanted to take with me to Amy (watching everything she touched beam away in a flash of white light) I was ready. "So what happens now?" I asked.

"Take my hand," she replied and held out her right hand. I looked around at my room before taking her soft hand.

It would be the last time I would ever see that room again.


	2. PB: Chapter 2: Preparing for Launch

**Chapter 2: Preparing for Launch**

-] Two Weeks Later - Cheyenne Mountain Complex [-

It had been a quick two weeks and yet it also felt like months had past. I now sat before General West. Catherine sat beside me. She was a frail woman reaching 70 years old but she still had spirit.

We were inside the Cheyenne Mountain Military base, home of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) which was a joint American/Canadian organization dedicated to the security of North American airspace. Its historic task was as watchman for the threat of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.

Cheyenne Mountain contained nearly a skyscraper's worth of floors underground. While the full extent of the facilities available to personnel within the complex was unknown to me for the moment, I was at least certain of several cafeterias and troop's barracks, at least one gym, a fully equipped infirmary, and several multi-purpose observation rooms. I remembered that they would be used for things such as complex surgery, interrogation, imprisonment, and volatile scientific experiments when Stargate Command was fully up and running.

"Commander," addressed General West to me. "We have chosen you to lead a possible mission for us. The president assures me that you are more than fit to lead the team we will choose."

"Thank you sir," I replied. That was another cool thing changed about me. Amy had given me a thorough background history for me that was real, at least in memory and records. Since coming here, I had become a Group Commander, which was a USAF rank and only a duty title. It applied to a commanding officer for a squadron. Apparently I was quite the pilot and had led a well-trained squad of pilots. That part had me excited as I loved to fly. I also had learned that in this world, despite my youthful looks, I was aged at 40. Four years younger than Jack had been. But I still looked to be in my mid 20's. Anyways, a Group Commander was the same as a colonel, but everyone called me Commander instead of my new official rank of Colonel, even after my transfer to work under General West, like I was part of the Navy. It seemed that Amy knew that out of all the ranks, Commander was my favourite. Had to do with playing Mass Effect so much; the rank had grown on me. It was even part of my gamer tag.

"I need you to accompany Catherine here to find Dr. Daniel Jackson. She's said that he's the best at understanding ancient writings. We've tracked him to New York where he's due to give a seminar the day after tomorrow. Major Charles Kawalsky will accompany you. You leave immediately. Dismissed."

* * *

-] Two Days Later - New York City [-

The flight over was alright. The first time I had ever caught a plane was in 2001. So seeing the deck for a plane in 1995 was interesting. We travelled in Business Class, which was very generous of the Air Force to provide. Most of the time I listened to some music on my Sony CD Walkman. That's right. No iPhone, no MP3 Player. It was nostalgic, to be sure. The first Walkman I had rocked was a cassette Walkman, and I loved it to bits. I could have bought a MD Walkman, but I wanted to wait until 2002 when the NetMD's came out. But, thanks to Amy, my computer and all my external hard drives were at my new home in Colorado Springs. So I still had my own music.

The home that Amy had set up for me was indeed the same place that Jack stayed at for almost the whole Stargate SG-1 series. It truly was a beautiful home. But I spent some time redecorating it to suit my style. Most of the stuff Amy had teleported here was currently locked in a secret basement underneath the house until a future time where it wouldn't look strange sitting around my place. This included my TV, Sony MUTEKI sound system, Super Slim PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, my new iPhone 5, all my games for both consoles and all the movies and TV series I had on physical DVD/BluRay disks.

So instead I had a large rear-projection TV in the lounge room with a PlayStation 1 hooked up to it. Seeing as Final Fantasy VII was still being considered for a Nintendo release and hadn't switched to CD-ROM and sequentially Sony yet, I couldn't put up any promotional posters yet. However in place of the Mars picture that hung up to the side of the main couch in the TV series, now there was an awesome CG picture of the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris. I was allowed that in the room as I could dismiss it as a good painting. A large stereo system with two big wooden speakers sat around the TV.

I had installed a ground pool in the back yard that was situated between the house and the large pond. I wasn't interested in fishing, but the scenery was very beautiful. There was a spa bath add on to the pool with a grey slate floor surrounding both, giving it a more natural look then the usual brick tiles. There was also a two meter high pile of large water polished rocks where water was pumped to the top and it cascaded down the rocks into a shishiodoshi in a separate pool before being pumped back up to the top. A few outdoor waterproof speakers were strung up under the veranda with a few deck chairs. There was a BBQ under a small shelter surrounded by greenery. It was a very beautiful property.

Catherine and I talked a bit about the project and we became friends on the flight. Catherine looked like her movie actress counterpart, Viveca Lindfors. I was glad as I liked this version better than the one in the TV series. Charles Kawalsky was an alright guy and he, too, looked like his movie version, John Diehl. He was still getting over his shock at Jack's suicide, so he didn't talk much. But he accepted me as squad leader well enough. And then we arrived in Rochester, New York, and caught a small limousine to the Park Plaza Hotel.

The hotel was large indeed. There were no lecture halls inside but there was a theatre room that was converted into a lecture hall for the day. Catherine and I walked to the room in question and slipped silently through the door. It seemed Daniel had already started. I was dressed in casual black cargo pants, a white t-shirt and a black leather jacket with a thick silver grey fur collar.

"When is the academic community going to accept the fact that the Pharaohs of the fourth dynasty did not build the Great Pyramids." There was a small amount of mumblings at this. The microphone whined a bit as Daniel adjusted it. "Look, inside the pyramids there are no writings, whatsoever. And..." here he was interrupted.

"Doctor Jackson, you've left out the fact that Colonel Vyse discovered inscriptions with Khufu's name."

"Uh, his discovery was a fraud," said Daniel while writing on the blackboard behind him. He looked like the SG-1 version of the guy, Michael Shanks. Which was good as I thought James Spader looked a little too much like a spineless nerd in the movie.

"I don't think you'll prove it," replied the same person.

"Well who do you think built the pyramids then?" asked another.

There was a lengthy pause before Daniel replied. "I don't have any idea who built them, I mean that..." here he was interrupted again.

"Maybe people from Atlantis? Or Martians perhaps?" said someone. This got several laughs.

'I wonder how much he'd freak to learn that "Martians" did at least help with the construction of them,' I thought amusedly.

"The point is not who built them, the point is _when_ they were built," his words were falling on deaf ears as almost everyone was now beginning to leave. "I mean we all know," continued Daniel as if he didn't know this was happening. "That geological evidence dates the Sphinx back to a much earlier period and knowing this we have to re-evaluate everything we've come to accept about..." By now there was only one person still listening. We decided that we would wait for him in the limo.

Outside it had started to rain. We managed to get inside before the worst of it became to thunder down. Inside the limo the back had two seats facing each other. I was in the front while Catherine was facing me in the back.

"Well, he seems to be a nice guy," I said, brushing the small amount of water out of my hair.

"He's the foremost expert in his field. But his theories are too radical for the public to believe," answered Catherine. I grinned. "Well he'll get a blast out of this. If he accepts, that is."

Twenty minutes later Dr. Jackson appeared in the doorway. He looked around at the sky before he pulled the hood of his raincoat around him and stepped out. Kawalsky got out of our hired limo and called to Daniel.

After a few moments he walked over and Kawalsky opened the door. He stepped in and sat down next to Catherine.

"Jackson," said Catherine as she pulled out a photo. "Are these your parents?" she asked.

Daniel glanced from her to the photograph, his motion to lower his hood halted for a moment. "Foster parents," he replied back. There was a pause. "What is this all about?"

"A new job," I said. His attention turned to me and I waited as he looked me over a few times.

"Oh, sorry. Commander Josh Kitsuné," I introduced as I put forward my hand. He shook it.

"You don't look like a military man," he noted.

"I know. I get that allot," I replied. I then gestured to the old lady next to me. "This is Catherine Langford."

"Uh... nice to meet you," Daniel nodded at her. "So… what kind of a job?" he asked.

"Translation," answered Catherine. "Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs." She took off her glasses and looked at him. "Interested?"

"I-I'm going to go now," said Jackson, sounding a little spooked.

"Go where?" she laughed humourlessly. "You've just been evicted from your apartment. Your grants have run out. Everything you own are in those two bags." She then picked up a set of papers. "You want to prove your theories are correct? This is your chance." She then handed him the papers.

"What's this?" asked Daniel.

"Your plane ticket and travel papers," I replied. "I suggest you take the job. I promise you won't regret it." The door then opened and Kawalsky called out to him. Daniel took one last look at us before he got out of the car.

* * *

-] Three Days Later - Cheyenne Mountain Complex [-

I looked at myself in the mirror as I thought about the past three weeks. I still wore the same clothes from my first meeting with Daniel. I also wore a short, thin silver necklace around my neck with two dogtags attached for my name and rank. A second, longer necklace graced my chest, but this one was different. The chain was thicker and at the bottom hung a silver winged fox. I had my Cerberus necklace changed to this form as it suited me better.

I took a deep breath before a voice behind me made me jump in surprise.

"You ready?"

I turned around to see Amaterasu sitting on the edge of my bed. She was wearing a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. The last time I saw her she was wearing tight clothes, therefore her body shape was almost completely shown off. And now wasn't any different. She had a fantastic body, a nice hourglass figure. I had correctly judged her breasts to be a DD-cup and they were quite firm and perky looking. Her legs had a nicely toned shape to them with thick thighs. She also had a nicely rounded behind which the jeans hugged nicely. She had milky white skin, which looked flawless and smooth too. All boner inspiring sights aside, she was dressed totally out of character for an Ancient who called herself Amaterasu. If it wasn't for the subtle feeling of great power I could feel from her, I wouldn't believe it.

"Oh, hello there. I guess I'm ready. Any chance you can explain the changes you've made to me," I asked, still having no idea of just how extensive she had changed me. At least my personality was still the same.

"Well, you now have a very strong presence of the Ancient gene inside of you, ten times stronger than John Sheppard had," she explained.

"Wow! Really?" I asked in astonishment. "Anything else?"

"Yes. I've given you gifts to get through this journey. And you won't be alone. You'll have me to help you if things get too dicey for you and your team." I smiled at this.

"Thanks Amy. I'll try to make sure I won't need that kind of help, no offence. So what gifts did you give me?" I asked.

"The first is a hyper immune system, like Teal'c's without the snake-in-the-gut thing. This will protect you from all diseases and sicknesses. But it won't block sedatives. Can't make you god-like after all." I smiled at this.

"Second is accelerated healing. Light cuts and scratches will heal in minutes while injuries such as non-fatal bullet wounds heal within a few hours. This can't be reverse engineered from your blood so no-one will be able to gain this ability from blood samples. However it won't stop fatal wounds. But if you do get one, I will be there to heal you completely if necessary. I don't want you dying on me by accident."

"That'll piss off the NID," I commented.

"Very much. Third is that you're completely resistant to all methods of torture." I opened my mouth to ask something but Amy cut me off with a wide smile. "And no it doesn't cure your ticklish spots."

"Shit," I muttered.

"Fourth is that you can focus your Ancient gene power to heal minor injuries on others."

"Define minor," I asked.

"At most you can heal a broken ankle before it becomes too taxing on your focus," she explained. "It works the same as how you use Reiki."

"You know about that, huh?" I asked. Reiki was a spiritual healing practice based from Japan that was supposed to heal with just using your hands, by gathering Qi (Chi or Ki) from the universe and flowing it through your hands to heal. There was no scientific evidence that this method worked, but many patients who receive it claim that they feel different levels of betterness. I learned the first level when I was young, and though I never actively practiced, I never forgot how to perform the basics. "That'll be useful," I added after Amy nodded to my previous question.

"The last one is used with these." Here Amy gestured to her right and a large black case appeared in midair. My eyes widened before I looked at the camera in the corner of my room worriedly.

"Don't worry. I've used my powers to create an illusion in front of the camera. Security believes you are sleeping alone," said Amy, calming my worries. I then redirected my attention to the case which floated over to sit on my lap. I immediately opened the case and gasped.

Inside were two were triple-barrelled revolvers. They were sleek and beautiful. Both were roughly 16 inches long. They were ornamented with scrollwork patterns, had a small fox's head in place of the iron sights on each barrel, and a silver chain in the shape of a winged fox, exactly like my winged fox necklace, hanging from the end of the grip. One was black and the other was white with the patterns and fox heads on both done in silver. The handle grip was a light grey/dark grey material on the respective guns. Felt like the material on the grips on high grade cameras. I took out the white one and marvelled at the craftsmanship of the fox heads and the intricate decorative lines etched into it. It was also very light and I assumed the black one was too.

"These triple barrelled Cerberus class handguns are awesome!" I replied.

"As you've stated, these guns are the same as the Cerberus revolver that Vincent Valentine uses," explained Amy. "Each one is a semi-automatic, break loading revolver with three barrels and three cylinders. They are reloaded by a breaking mechanism that tilts the barrels and cylinders an angle, allowing the ejection of spent cartridges and the placement of fresh rounds, ending with a flick of the wrist that snaps the barrels back into place."

"Cool," I replied.

Amy nodded. "You'll notice that, in the way of ammo, there isn't much of it. 18 shots in total for each gun without reloading." I nodded back. "Well that's where your fifth gift comes into play. You're super humanly accurate with them so you'll mostly need one or two shots to kill. Later I'll upgrade the handguns to hold rechargeable power cells like used in Ronan's gun. You notice that they are also very light. I designed them to have no recoil as well."

I then took a closer look and saw that there was a small switch near where the hammer was. "What's this switch for?" I asked.

"At the moment that switch is used to switch between single shot and a three bullet shotgun type blast. Later, when the bullets are replaced with the power cells that switch will be used to switch between stun and kill, like a Zat gun." She then held up a strange object that had roughly 18 bullets stuck on one side. "You'll use these to reload. You'll need to replace the bullets on each one outside of battle, but they're used to reload quickly and easily. Just eject the spent cartridges, remove the empty clip and slot in a new clip to reload."

"Like how Vash and Knives reloaded their guns in their final fight in the last episode of Trigun," I replied, nodding in understanding.

Amy looked a little confused before she closed her eyes. I felt a slight tingling in my mind before she opened her eyes and smiled. "Exactly so."

"What did you just do?" I asked.

"I read what you were thinking about. Normally delving into one's mind is an invasion of privacy, but if an Ancient just reads the forefront thought only, and even then, only for general info and not personal info, then its ok. I hope you don't mind," she replied.

"Not at all. Just let me know so I can keep the thought in my head long enough for you to read it, ok?"

"Sure thing. So what do you think of them?" she asked.

"They're beautiful!" I said in awe of the guns in front of me. "Now to think of names for these babies. Hmmm... ... ... Ah, the white one is Oathkeeper and the black one is Oblivion!" I grinned.

"Good names," approved Amy. "Now, these guns can be summoned to your hands from wherever location other than at your side they may be. They're also indestructible."

"Great. Is there anything more I need to know?" I asked.

"A few things. Thanks to your advanced healing abilities and your resistance to sickness, you will completely resist the mind altering process that sarcophaguses do. By the time you're finished healing, the sarcophagus will have finished. You know Taekwondo. You're a multi-linguist like Daniel, but you don't know as many as him. Russian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese is all. I have a team of Ancients who work under me, creating a special ship for you to use on missions. It should be ready in a few years. All the new info from your 'new' past will become known to you at relevant points in time so you don't get overwhelmed. And finally, a present for you," here she opened a hand and a small wrapped up parcel appeared in her hand.

"You've already given me so much," I protested but Amy shook her head. "Those were essential. This is simply a nice gift."

"Ok," I replied before taking the box and removing the wrapping to reveal a leather bound box. I opened the lid and smiled widely when I saw the black harmonica inside. I turned to Amy and gave her a warm hug, to which she responded a little hesitantly. "Thank you Amy. Thank you so much," I said, my voice thick with emotion. It wasn't the harmonica, but the instrument was the trigger for everything Amy did to change my life.

"It's ok. I'm just trying to give you as much of a good chance as possible," replied Amy. I let go to see her slightly flushed from the contact. I guess she was a little embarrassed. "T-that harmonica is undetectable so it can't be taken from you as long as you have it."

I nodded but she wasn't finished. "Be careful," she added. "Don't do things too differently from the main story. If you do so, then future events will change, therefore rendering your knowledge of the events useless. Then you'll be flying by the seat of your pants the whole way. I can identify which events are tied to major plot changes so you'll have fair warning."

"I'll be careful," I said before the walkie talkie sitting on my bedside table crackled with a voice.

"Commander, Dr Jackson has just arrived. Escort him down to the cartouche room."

I walked over to the device and raised it to my mouth. "Understood," I said before I clipped it onto my belt. I then walked to the door. "See ya later, Amy," I said as I looked behind to see her dissolve into a white energy and fade from view.

**'I'll be by your side all the time,'** said her voice in my head. **'If you want to speak to me, just project your thoughts. I'll respond. And don't worry. I can't hear your thoughts as long as you don't project them. To project your thoughts, just think as if you were speaking and not thinking. Easy, right?'**

'Yeah, can you hear this?' I asked in my head.

**'Yes,'** she replied.

_How bout now?_ I asked again, this time doing what she suggested. From the silence I guess I did it properly. I then turned the handle and exited my room. I made my way up to the ground floor and waited next to the elevator. I didn't have to wait long before a car drove up to park near me and Daniel got out.

"Hello there!" I called out, waving to him. He looked over to me and waved back. I pressed the button to open the doors and we both got inside. "So, how are you feeling?" I asked.

Daniel was about to answer when he sneezed loudly. "Sorry," he said as he pulled out a hanky. "Allergies. Always happens when I travel."

"Eh, it's ok. I'm allergic to dogs and cats. It's the crap on their fur for me. Pisses me off cause I like dogs and cats," I replied.

We arrived at level B28 and we walked out of the elevator. As soon as we were out, Daniel was approached by Dr Gary Meyers. He was a scientist that was trying, unsuccessfully, to translate the symbols on the coverstones found on top of the Giza Stargate.

"Dr Jackson!" he called, gaining our attention. "Dr Gary Meyers; how are you?" he asked.

"Oh, hello," Daniel replied as we continued to head to the room with the coverstones and cartouche. "What is this place?" he asked me.

"It's the Cheyenne Mountain Military base; the home for NORAD. The floor we are on however is underneath NORAD," I supplied before another scientist, Dr Barbara Shore, butted in.

"I'm Barbara Shore, hi," she said.

"Hello," Daniel replied.

We then reached the room and I pushed open the doors to show Daniel the objects he would be working on for the next 2 weeks.

The guy was immediately mesmerised by the stones, and the hieroglyphs carved into them. He looked like a little kid with wide eyed curiosity.

"You should see you face," I grinned at him as he slowly approached the stones. At that point, Catherine joined our little group.

"Hello there," I greeted. I then pulled on Daniel's sleeve. He reluctantly pulled his eyes away and looked at the old woman.

"Hello Jackson," she smiled.

"Hey! Hello," he replied before turning back to the stones. "This is… where did you find this?" he asked, still awed by what he was seeing.

Catherine chuckled at Daniel's childlike wonder. "Giza Plateau in 1928," she replied.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Daniel said.

"Of course you haven't. No one has," she replied with another laugh.

"Now there are two lines of hieroglyphs," Meyers said, looking eager to show off his knowledge to the new guy. "Now the inner track has the classic figures, but the outer track is like the cartouche in the centre. It's got writing unlike we've ever found before."

"Those aren't hieroglyphs. Might be some form of hieratic or maybe cuneiform," Daniel mumbled to no-one in particular.

"Yeah," agreed Shore, though it sounded like he was just copying Daniel in order to sound like he knew what he was doing.

Daniel then moved over to the blackboard and studied the writings on it for a moment. "Well, the translation of the inner track is wrong. Must've used Budge. I don't know why they keep reprinting his books." He then began to rub out some of the translated words.

"Ex-excuse me. Wha-what are you doing? We've used every known technique," protested Meyers.

Daniel pointed to one of the untranslated hieroglyphs. "That's a curious word, to use, eh, 'Quebeh'?" he asked.

"Yeah…?" Meyers replied dubiously.

"Then an adverbial sedjem-en-ef with a cleft subject. Then 'Sealed and buried.'" Daniel continued to translate while crossing out a few pre-translated words.

"Ex-excuse me. Wha-what are you doing?" Meyers repeated, obviously very flustered as that was his work that Daniel was erasing, crossing out and re-translating.

"That's not coffin…'For all time.' Who the hell translated this?" Daniel eventually asked.

Catherine, Shore and I looked at Meyers in a deadpan way.

"Uh… I-I did," Meyers said, though without the superior tone he usually used.

Daniel sighed. "Well, this should read: 'A million years into the sky is Ra, sun god, sealed and buried for all time...' It's not 'door to heaven'," he wrote the final translation at the bottom.

Stargate

"Stargate," Daniel finished.

I laughed. "I believe that Meyers just got owned."

"Well, so why is the military so interested in 5,000 year old Egyptian tablets?" Daniel asked in a slightly cheerful and curious tone.

"Actually, carbon dating puts it at 10,000 years old," I replied.

"Seriously? 10,000 is ludicrous. I mean, Egyptian culture didn't even exist at that point," Daniel replied in a shocked tone.

"We know. But the carbon tests don't lie. Least as far as we know. We double checked to be sure. It's at 10,000 years," I replied.

"Well, these are cover stones. Was there a tomb underneath?" he asked.

"Well it-" I replied before Kawalsky, who had just entered the room, whispered something into my ear.

"General West has just put you in charge of Project Giza. It is no longer under Catherine's jurisdiction," he said.

"Shit. This is going to piss her off," I whispered back.

'**You need to handle this just like O'Neill did in the movie,'** Amy said in my head.

'Ok, Amy. Gotcha,' I replied before turning to Daniel. "Sorry, but that information just became classified." I then looked back at Kawalsky. "From now on, no information is to be passed on to non-military personnel without my express permission." Kawalsky nodded before we left the room together.

We had gotten maybe 7 steps out when Catherine called to me. I looked at Kawalsky. "I'll meet up with you later." He nodded before leaving the two of us.

"Josh, I think you owe me an explanation," she said, clearly not pleased.

"Sorry, but I just got orders that Project Giza is under my jurisdiction now," I explained.

"But why is the military now in charge?" she asked.

"In case you succeed," I replied simply. "Don't worry, you'll stay in the loop. I promise." I then walked away, leaving her standing in the corridor alone.


	3. PB: Chapter 3: Abydos

**Chapter 3: Abydos**

-] Two Weeks Later - Dawn [-

I was lying on my bed, listening to my music. There hadn't been much to do within these last few weeks so I had stocked my new place in Colorado Springs with some much needed entertainment. Final Fantasy VII had yet to come out, so I was stuck playing several other games on my new PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64.

I had spent last night here as I didn't know the exact time Daniel would connect the 'unknown' symbols on the cartouche with star constellations. And so, here I was, board out of my mind.

_Daniel must be close by now,_ I thought to myself when my door burst open and there stood the man himself, looking a little haggard.

'Bout fucking time!' I thought with Amy giggling. "What's up?" I asked out loud.

"I did it! The cartouche symbols, I know what they are now," he said very quickly in that way of his.

"Ok, then let's go set ourselves up a meeting," I said as I stood up and we walked out together.

* * *

-] 36 Hours Later [-

I was in the briefing room with many important people, and we were all waiting for Daniel. I had sent Kawalski to go get him 20 minutes ago. I was just about to go and find out why the hell they were taking so long when the two entered the room; Daniel loaded down with a multitude of scrolls, posters, papers and a few other things. General West was in the room as well as Catherine and her two scientists.

"Hey there. We were beginning to think you weren't going to make it," I greeted him before getting a good look at some of the things he had in his hands. "You sure you need all of that?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

"Ok. Your presentation, your call," I shrugged.

"Jackson, I'd like you to meet General West," Catherine introduced the general. He was a typical looking redneck with very short brown hair and a bushy moustache. Daniel shook his hand and said hello to a few others as he put his stuff down.

"So, you think you've solved in fourteen days what they couldn't solve in two years?" the general asked.

Daniel blinked. "Two years?" he asked. Catherine and the scientists looked a little embarrassed.

"Any time," West replied sarcastically.

"Um, I have some stuff for you to look at," Daniel began, sounding very nervous. He began to pass out his posters to everyone. "Just, um, pass-pass them down. Um, you'll have to share them, cause I um... Sorry, I- Sorry, I don't have enough of those. But, anyway..." By now almost everyone had a picture to reference from.

'The day tablet computers are invented will be the day Stargate Command will throw a massive base wide party,' I thought. Amy giggled again at my humour.

Daniel cleared his throat and now he sounded much more confident. "Okay, all right, we're obviously looking at a picture of the cover stones. Now, on the outer track, these figures that you would believe to be words to be translated were, in fact..." here he got up and unrolled the largest poster in his little collection, "were in fact star constellations. Now these constellations were placed in a unique order forming a map or an address of sorts. Seven points to outline a course to a position."

Now he moved over to a whiteboard and began to draw a diagram that would explain how each symbol in the address would correspond in space.

"And uh... to find a destination within any three dimensional space, you need six points to determine the exact location."

"You said you needed seven points?" West asked.

"Well, no, six for the destination. But to chart a course, you need a point of origin," Daniel explained.

"Except there's only six symbols in the cartouche," Meyers spoke up.

"Well, the seventh actually isn't inside the cartouche, it's just below it," he pointed to the sketch of the cartouche that was also tacked onto the board. He began to draw on it for better explanation. "Here designated by a little pyramid with two funny neat little guys and funny little line coming out of the top."

Here he paused and seemed to sense the atmosphere of the room to his small amount of joking. "Anyway..." he broke off, a little embarrassed.

"He did it," Cathrine simply said.

"No. That symbol isn't anywhere on the device," Meyers protested.

"Uh-what device? Um?" Daniel asked, confused as hell by now.

General West looked at me. I nodded my head. "Show him General. I think he deserves to know by now." West nodded himself.

"Hang onto your seat Daniel," I grinned as Kawalski positioned himself next to the button that was next to the whiteboard. I walked over to the young archaeologist as Kawalski pushed the button, which raised the whiteboard up, showing a window. We looked through the window, and Daniel's eyes widened.

There, standing upright at the bottom of a missile silo, was a large metal ring. It was 6.7 meters in diameter and weighed at roughly 29 tons. The metal that made up the ring was dark grey in appearance with several amber coloured chevrons positioned evenly around the outer edge. Within the ring were glyphs that were built into an inner ring. A metal ramp was built front of it, and various personnel were working around it.

"What is that?" he asked me in awe.

"Well, it's the Stargate," I smiled at him. I then placed my hand on his shoulder. "C'mon Daniel. Let's see if we can find our missing symbol."

* * *

One level down was the control centre for the Stargate. The place was filled with tech; some of it up to date and some not so recent.

"Monitors up!" Myers ordered as he walked ahead of us.

"Monitors are up," a female technician confirmed as Daniel and I looked around.

"Mitch, you want to bring up the details on the center monitor, please," Myers continued to order.

Mitch flipped a few switches, bringing the main gate diagnostics onto the main viewing monitor, a Phillips. It showed a computer trace image of the Stargate with seven blank boxes to the right. The status of the gate was also shown as 'idle'.

The gate outside began to slowly spin to the right first. This was the first time I had seen the gate start up and so my eyes were glued to the scene. I could tell that Daniel was just as entranced by the show as I was.

'**Don't you think you should be keeping an eye out for that symbol?'** Amy asked, jolting me from my reverence.

I looked to the lower right of me where I saw a screen showing a close-up of one of the chevrons, and the symbols passing through it. As soon as the Earth symbol showed up on the screen, Daniel said 'stop'. Then, after liberating a whiteboard marker from Mitch, he drew the 'missing' parts next to the symbol on the screen. "Two figures on either side, praying beside a pyramid with the sun directly above it."

"Nice," I grinned.

"He's right. It was in front of us the whole time," muttered Myers in amazement.

"Don't feel bad Myers. Daniel is just that awesome," I smiled at Daniel, who smiled back, embarrassed by the comment.

"So, now that we've got ourselves our address, what say we dial it up?" I asked, quoting from the TV show.

"'Dial it up'?" Myers asked.

"Yeah. Just like a telephone," I replied.

"It is if you think about it," Shore agreed.

Meanwhile Catherine had dialled up the room above us. "General West, Jackson has identified the seventh symbol," she reported.

"Go ahead," West's voice filtered through an internal comm. As soon as that order was issued, techs bustled around everywhere, flipping switches and turning knobs. The Stargate began to turn, faster than before as the coordinates were now locked into the system. The female tech from before typed away at her computer terminal. "Programming seventh symbol into computer," she reported. "Chevron One is holding." The gate slowed down and the first chevron lit up as a hollow metal triangle slid over the symbol, paused for a moment before slipping back. "Chevron One is locked in place." The gate then began to spin in the opposite direction.

"Power output at 23%," Mitch informed.

"Chevron Two is holding. Chevron Two is locked in place."

"Holding at 35%," Mitch continued to convey.

At this point the technicians in the gate room began to evacuate.

"It was _under_ the cover stones?" Daniel asked in amazement.

"Yes. My father found it. 1928. Made out of a mineral unlike any found on Earth," Catherine explained.

"Chevron Five locked in place."

"79%." At this point the entire room began to vibrate.

"Chevron Six is holding. Chevron Six is locked in place."

"This is as far as we have ever been able to get," Catherine said, having to raise her voice over the loud shaking of the entire room. The computer monitors started going crazy with output data as the seventh chevron was dialled — the Earth point of origin. By now the shaking was so hard, Mitch had to hold the telephone on the desk.

"We have to override manually!" Mitch yelled as he typed at his keyboard.

"Chevron Seven is..." A conductor clamped to the gate sparked off and a light haze of smoke quickly filled throughout the room. "Chevron Seven is locked in place!"

At that point I watched as bright shimmering energy shot out of the inside of the ring, collided at the middle and blasted out as if someone underwater was observing a heavy object impacting the surface and into the depths. The blast pushed out from the gate perhaps five or six meters before it froze and retreated backward to the ring. On the other side cameras showed a large vertical sideways whirlpool. But that didn't last for very long and the energy stabilised into a rippling puddle of shimmering light.

'Oh… my… god…' I expressed in awe inside my mind. Nothing in the movie or TV series even came close to what I was feeling right now as I just stood there, entranced, viewing my first Activation Vortex of a connected Stargate.

'**It is something,'** Amy agreed.

We all stood there for perhaps twenty seconds, mesmerized by the scene, before West ordered that a probe be sent in. Within moments a team of marines entered the gateroom with technicians getting to work on setting up a treaded probe to go through the Stargate.

Soon the probe rolled off the platform it was on, turned onto the ramp and trundled up it. The squad left the room with the technicians, leaving the probe alone with the Stargate.

We all watched with bated breath as the probe continued its way up the ramp and stopped in front of the puddle. The arm on top unfolded and poked forward. The arm submerged itself fully into the puddle before the whole probe was pulled in.

Data began to stream in as the computers tracked the route of the probe. "It's guiding itself. Can you believe it?" Shore asked in surprise. My eyes were drawn to the large see-through star chart off to one side and I watched as the tracker device moved across the chart. Sol system was in the middle and the tracker stretched out to the right, slowly rising up to the top right corner.

Shore got busy trying to find out where that was. "The thing has locked itself onto a point somewhere… in the Kaliam galaxy."

'Impossible. Abydos can't be more than 1000 light years away. It's the closest gate ours can probably lock on to as stellar drift would be minor over the last 10,000 years and well within our gate's buffer,' I thought.

'**It is impossible. That galaxy resides in the Corona Borealis supercluster,'** Amy replied.

'That's one billion light years away. To travel that far… you would have to need an eight chevron address, right?'

'**Seven chevrons are needed to travel between gates within a galaxy. To traverse between galaxies, eight chevrons are needed. Nine chevrons are used as a code to make a connection to a specific gate no matter the distance between them and, depending on the distance, an insane amount of power. Way too much for these superconductor clamps to handle. To make a connection for a full 32 minutes, a whole ZPM would be needed to power the gate connection,'** Amy explained.

'Wowzers! A whole ZPM for one full connection? Just how far _have_ you people spread out anyways?'

'**I think we're getting a little off topic here,'** Amy said, dodging the current one.

"It has mass. It-it could be a moon or a large asteroid," the female tech, Jenny, theorised.

"Or it could very well be another planet. I doubt that whoever built this gate would have it directed to a lump of rock in the middle of no-where," I said.

"Where are we on that map?" Daniel asked.

"This point shows roughly 1 billion light years away," I replied.

"That's right, Jackson. It's on the other side of the...known universe," Catherine finished off as Daniel looked in wonder at the distance on the map.

"We're-we're losing the signal!" Jenny announced before the wormhole disconnected and the gateroom was plunged into silence.

* * *

"This is the information the probe sent back to us," General West explained as the monitor we were looking at showed several stills which displayed a room, and the Stargate on the other end. "Freeze and enhance. You can clearly see the gate on the other side. Both gates must have functioned as a doorway between our worlds."

"Mmm, well I doubt that the other gate is 1 billion light years away. The amount of energy that would require such a long distance connection would have most likely melted the superconductor clamps right off the gate. I think we can safely assume that this gate is in the Milky Way galaxy and not halfway across the universe," I theorised, which was really stating the facts, but they didn't need to know that.

"I agree. I doubt we would have ever made the connection at all if the gate was at the coordinates that we measured. We still don't know enough about the Stargate to make accurate measurements in distance," Myers concurred.

"These readings tell us it's an atmospheric match. Barometric pressure, temperature, and most importantly, oxygen," Johnson, one of the General's advisors, stated.

Daniel was studying the monitor that was showing the gate symbols. "These markings are different. They don't match the symbols on our gate," he noted.

"That's why we may have to abort. This project is for naught without a reconnaissance mission," West stated.

Jackson looked a little confused so Johnson explained. "Once on the other side, we'd have to decipher the markings on their gate, and in essence dial home in order to bring the team back."

"Based on this new information, I don't see how we can do that," the General said.

"Well, I can do that," Daniel spoke up.

We all looked at him, with me and Kawalski giving him a small smile. "Are you sure?" West asked.

Daniel looked back to the screen for a moment before he turned back to us. "Positive," he nodded.

I looked at the General. "It's ok with me, sir," I said. He nodded at me before looking back at Daniel. "You're on the team."

* * *

Three hours later everything had been packed and was loaded onto a remote controlled small mechanized rover. I wore the standard flak jacket with all the pockets and pieces on it. However underneath it I wore a light and loose shirt so I wouldn't cook when on the other side. My harmonica was slotted into one of the smaller pockets. I didn't wear a hat as the one Jack wore in the movie was lame. I had my new guns holstered to my sides.

As I walked past my team, I was nervous as hell. I had never led a team before. Despite what Amy said about having it in me, I sure didn't feel like it. So I decided to start with a joke.

"Ok guys, I suggest that now is a good time to empty your bladders before you walk through this thing so you don't piss yourselves," I said and this was met with a few chuckles and grins. "Also, if you have something to say, now's the time to say it."

There was a loud sneeze and we all turned to see Daniel blowing his nose on a hanky.

"Couldn't have put it better myself, Daniel," I grinned, getting a few more laughs from my team.

The door then opened and we all walked out and came face to face with the active Stargate. Since I was first I walked up the ramp and stood behind the rover; everyone else standing behind me. I looked at the event horizon and marvelled at the beauty of it. I then turned to Lieutenant Brown and nodded for him to drive the rover through.

After the rover went through, I and my team walked up to the gate and I stopped a foot away from it. I felt so in awe and reverence of this piece of tech; that I felt like I was going to walk through the gates of heaven instead of crossing to a new planet. I reached out and felt the energy with my bare hand. The feeling that I received was unlike anything I had ever felt before. If I had to describe it, it felt like liquid metal. Like water, but heavier like metal. Such a strange feeling. I also felt it tugging at my fingertips so I pulled back.

"Well… one small step for man," I said before I raised my foot and took a step forward.

Since I had my eyes open as I walked through the event horizon, I watched as my perception warped and twisted as I shot forward at speeds billions of times faster than light. It was like I was on a roller-coaster in the dark, and points of light, which represented stars, whizzed past me like bullets. Then a bright light came up in front of me and I was suddenly on the other side, standing in a large stone room.

The rover was already a few meters away from the gate so I stood slightly to the side to steady the guys after they walked through. I felt coldness on my face and I touched my cheek to realise that there was frost over my stubble beard. I rubbed my face and chin to get rid of the frost before Brown came through.

"Whoah! It's ok," I said, catching him as he stumbled on the floor. After a few seconds he was ok. I then gently pushed him aside to help the next one. By the time Daniel came through, everyone was coping from the trip, though Kawalski was still a little dizzy.

"Daniel! It's ok. The vertigo will wear off in a minute," I said before I left him to Brown.

"Hey Ferretti! You ok?" I asked.

"What a rush," he replied before he got to rubbing the ice from his face off.

"Everyone! Light some flares. That gate is gonna shut off soon," I ordered. Kawalski, Ferretti and Brown did so, and not a second too late as the gate shut off, with the only light from the flares now firing.

"Ok. Split up into three teams. Let's go," I said. The team took a moment to register my orders before they sprang into action. 'I could get used to this,' I grinned in my head.

We made our way forward down a corridor where light was emitting from the end. I looked up at one point to see the ring platform above me. We entered the next room, which was lit by natural light streaming in from the outside. My team continued to scout the area while I walked forward.

"Clear. No contact," Lieutenant Reilly reported.

"Brown, check the atmospheric conditions for outside," I said.

Brown took the handheld reader and walked forward to the entrance. After a moment the readings came back. "Conditions are similar to inside," the lieutenant replied.

"I'm gonna take a look around. Kawalski? Ferretti? Daniel? You're with me," I said. The two soldiers moved forward and into the outside. I walked outside too and took a look around. It was all desert. We walked down the ramp, past the two stone obelisks at the end and out a ways. I then turned around and my mouth fell open at the sight.

"Daniel? You might want to turn around," I suggested. He did and gave a sudden jolt as he focused on the giant stone pyramid and three moons almost framing the monument.

I looked at Daniel, who had a big smile on his face. "I knew it," he said softly.

"Someone's a happy chappy," I grinned. 'But this is only the single grain tip of the dune; pun fully intended,' I finished in my head with Amy giving a single amused laugh.


	4. PB: Chapter 4: The Locals

**Chapter 4: The Locals**

After I took a quick look around I came back to my squad. I was humming the main tune from Journey; the PlayStation Network game that I had downloaded not too long before I had been transported here. Seemed appropriate seeing as we were in a desert.

"Ok, that perimeter done, Kawalski?" I asked the lieutenant.

"A quarter mile perimeter survey is just about complete, sir," he replied.

I looked up to see Daniel walking around the base of the front entrance. Even from here I could see confusion in his movements.

"Ok. Be ready to pack all this up and get everyone back inside," I said.

"Yes, sir," he replied smartly. "Uhh, Commander?"

"Yeah?"

"You're coming with us, aren't you Commander?" Kawalski asked.

"Duh! Of course I am," I replied with a grin. _'I ain't committing suicide today, or any other day, thank you,'_ I thought as I watched Daniel walk down the ramp.

"Okie dokie Danny boy, start doing your thing on the Stargate," I said, though I knew his answer.

"I-I'm gonna need more time. I mean, there's bound to be more structures here, or some other traces of civilization," he replied.

"Not today. Just get us connected up so we can go back through," I shook my head.

"Well, it's not that easy. This is a replica of the great pyramid of Giza. We're not gonna find any hieroglyphic inscriptions or carved relief. I mean, we really need to look around more," Daniel insisted as Kawalski and Ferretti flanked me, interested in what was going on.

"Look, I understand where you're coming from. Really. But that's not what this mission is all about. This is strictly a 'get here, check it out and get back' kind of a mission. Now, can you please connect us back to home?"

Daniel began to nod, but ended up shrugging. "I can't."

There was a moment of silence. "Ok, what's wrong?" I sighed.

"I can decipher the symbols on the Stargate, but I need an order of alignment. Now those coordinates were marked on tablets back on Earth and there must be something like that here. And I-I just need to find it," he chuckled nervously.

"Find it? Whaddya mean, find it? You didn't say anything about 'finding' anything," Kawalski asked, his tone suggesting he was dangerously close to doing something violent.

"Well, I assumed the tablets would be here, I mean _right_ here," Daniel assured.

"Assumptions are dangerous to use here," I replied before I placed a hand on Kawalski's shoulder and gripped it tightly to stop him from shoving Daniel. "Ok, Kawalski. Set up a camp down here and organize our supplies. Looks like we're staying for a bit longer than we thought."

"Sir-"

"That's an order," I cut him off. He was silent for a moment before he walked past me, with Ferretti and the others following.

* * *

Two hours later the camp was set up. I was inside, setting up the nuke. Kawalski and the others had just taken the last of the supplies from the rover.

"**Calm down Josh or you're going to set it off,"** Amy said.

"Not helping Amy," I replied quietly out loud through gritted teeth as I opened the back panel. I took out the explosive and set it gently to the side. I then picked up the detonator, turned it on so a green light began to flash on it and slotted the pack into the top of the cylinder. A few metal cylinders pushed out seconds after that.

I swallowed thickly. I had never been more nervous than I was now. Not even walking through the Stargate for the first time was anything close to the sensation of arming my first nuke. I then picked up the bottom part and attached it to the main device. I sighed as I finished up before I looked up, hearing someone approaching. I disconnected the detonator, placed the fully assembled nuke back into the back compartment and closed the lid as Kawalski came into view.

"Base camp is set up, sir," he reported. I nodded, hiding the detonator from view as he picked up the last case and left the room.

"Boy, that was close," I sighed in relief as I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. All finished up, I took my own pack and walked out of the temple.

Outside I saw everyone relaxing after the work they had put in setting up the camp. But there was no Daniel.

"Where's Daniel?" I asked. Silence answered me, but it was a smug satisfied silence. I instantly knew what had happened.

I glared at my squad. "Real fucking mature people. Pick on the one guy who can get us home. I hope you're proud of yourselves."

The silence stayed, but now everyone wasn't looking too proud of themselves. "Kawalski, Brown, you're with me." They sprang to their feet and followed me.

We crested the next dune and saw Daniel approaching what looked like a yak of some… kind.

"**Mastadge,"** Amy corrected.

'Yeah, that,' I replied mentally. "Having fun?" I called to Daniel.

"It's got a harness! It's domesticated!" Daniel called back as he patted the animal's side. However he patted a little too hard and the beast called out, pawed at the air and took off, dragging Daniel along with it as his foot got caught in a bit of rope than managed to catch on Daniel's leg.

"Oh jeez!" I muttered as I took off after him, Brown and Kawalski close behind me. But it was no use. The thing was fast, and our stamina escaped us quick after climbing up and down two dunes.

* * *

Half an hour of following the trail Daniel and the animal left behind, we came across him being licked awake. We approached him, but then a loud farting noise came from the beast, along with an extremely foul stench.

"Hooooooo! Damn!" I recoiled violently and backpedalled to escape from the stench. Kawalski and Brown had similar reactions too.

"You ok there?" I asked from where I was standing, five meters away. I then heard a loud horn go off and I looked in the direction, also hearing a dull roaring.

"Guys?" I asked before I began walking up the next dune. When we got to the top and saw what it was we were hearing, Kawalski dropped to the ground and readied his gun. Same with Brown, who knelt instead.

We saw a very large tent that seemed to be made out of animal hide. In the distance there were giant pillars of rock. And there were people, loads of people, ferrying material to the tent and walking back to the closest and largest pillar. I pulled out a pair of binoculars and saw that the people were mining. There were six other tents in the distance near other pillars as well.

"That's some serious mining going on there," I murmured to no-one in particular.

"Chien pe-ow. Mieu!" one of the workers called out and pointed to us.

"Chien pe-ow. Mieu. Mieu. Mieu, shien mow!" another one continued. I raised my binoculars again and spied the one that was talking. It was Skaara. He was one out of two characters from the movie who kept with the same actor into the TV series. He had long black hair in thick dreadlocks and brown eyes, though it was impossible to tell from the distance.

"Are they saying meow?" I asked Brown.

"Sure sounds like it, sir," he replied with a confused smile.

"Perhaps we've stumbled across the rare Neko tribe!" I joked.

"Neko? What's that, sir?" Kawalski asked.

"It's Japanese for cat. It's a joke, Kawalski. A joke," I sighed. "Well, let's go say hi."

As we walked down, I saw that it wasn't just the people in this vicinity that had stopped. It was everyone in sight. As we closed in, Skaara moved to the front to greet us, or check us out… or something. I didn't have my guns out and ready, but Kawalski did.

"Well Daniel. You wanted to find some sort of civilization. Here it is. Time to do your thing," I said before crossing my arms and watching.

"Me?" he asked, suddenly nervous.

"Yeah you! Who else? I don't know cat speak," I replied, to which Brown snickered softly. So Daniel walked forward slowly and said hi.

"They don't speak English dumbass," I sighed.

The one Daniel approached then looked down at him and said, "Na tu de-why-ya." He turned around and repeated what he said much louder. Then everyone dropped their tools and began to prostrate in front of us.

"Was it something you said?" I asked as I walked up next to him.

"I didn't say anything," he replied in a confused manner.

"Yeah, I noticed. Except for 'hi'. Honestly, we're on an alien planet and we've met the locals and the first thing you say is 'hi'? And you say you're an archaeologist. Where'd you graduate from; Dumbass Uni?" I said, making fun good naturedly at Daniel's idea of First Contact. Kawalski and Brown had trouble stifling their laughter and Daniel simply rolled his eyes at me.

I walked forward to Skaara, who raised his head slightly to meet his eyes with mine before ducking back down. "It's ok kiddo," I said as I bent down. He slowly looked back up, his eyes fearful. "It's ok. Not gonna hurt you, I promise."

"**Now who's a dumbass?"** Amy giggled.

'Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,' I rolled my eyes mentally. I held out my hand to him and he rose til he stood on his knees. I grasped his hand and pulled him to his feet. He looked like he was going to throw up. I let go of him and he cried out before taking off across the sand, yelling, "Si misoy. Si misoy! Kasuf! Kasuf!"

"Oooookaaaay," I replied slowly as I watched him run off. Skaara returned quickly with another of those beasts (**"Mastadge."** 'Whatever!') which had a sheltered cover on top. Along with the beast, there was a small crowd of people as well. The beast stopped nearby and the cover was pulled back by an elderly man inside. It was Kasuf, Skaara's dad. He got down and walked over to us. Skaara seemed like he was trying to tell his father something, but Kasuf kept shooing him away for some reason. He then stopped in front of us and spoke at length, indicating his name and holding his staff horizontally in front of us and bowing in a peaceful gesture.

"I can't make it out. It sounds familiar, a bit like Berber. Maybe Chadic or Omotic," Daniel said lowly to me.

"Seems to me he's introducing himself and saying he means us no harm, or something like that," I theorised. Even though these words weren't translated in the movie, it was still obvious what he was trying to say.

Kasuf spoke a command to the people behind him and they all rose up. "Well, I'm glad that's over with. It was making me a little nervous," I grinned well naturedly. Kasuf then gave out another loudly whispered command and four women came to the front. One of them was quite beautiful. It was Sha're, Kasuf's daughter and Skaara's sister. It seemed this universe had decided on her movie counterpart, which in my opinion, was the cuter looking of the two.

I then looked at mine and almost pouted as I saw the less-than-stellar looks of her. "No fair! Why did you get the cute one!" I whispered at Daniel, pouting, with Kawalski and Brown grinning.

The women bowed to us and held out long oval shaped bowls made out of some giant seed. I took mine and sniffed it. Seeing as it didn't smell of anything, I took a cautious taste and confirmed that it was water. So I drank deeply, relishing the cool feeling of the liquid washing down my throat.

"Ahh, good stuff!" I smiled widely in satisfaction. I then dipped my hand in the left over water and wiped it over my face. "And that was even better. Thank you," I smiled gently at the one who gave me the water. She smiled nervously in return and took the bowl from me. I looked around to see the others finishing up with their water.

"Oh. Here," Daniel suddenly said and he took out a 5th Avenue chocolate bar. Kasuf looked around confused as Daniel unwrapped the chocolate and raised it to his face, taking a deep sniff.

"Mmmm!" he said.

"Ya rab-id yu?" Kasuf asked as he indicated eating. Daniel nodded and gave him the bar. Kasuf hesitated before he sniffed and took a bite of the bar. He slowly chewed before his eyes widened.

"Bunni, bunni-wae!" he replied, amazed.

"Bunni-wae?" Daniel repeated in question.

"Bunni-wae!" Kasuf said again. He looked at his people with a surprised smile on his face. The effect was slightly ruined at the fact that he had half a bar sticking out of his mouth, but it didn't matter.

"Bunni-wae," Daniel said again, more confidently in his pronunciation.

"What's that mean?" Kawalski asked.

"I have no idea," Daniel replied distractedly.

"Maybe they're talking about bunnies?" I asked jokingly, Amy laughing loudly at that. Brown grinned at my comment as well.

"Si pleu?" Kasuf asked as he gestured to the side, indicating that he wanted us to follow him.

"He's inviting us to go with him," Daniel explained.

"How can you be so sure?" Kawalski asked.

"Because he's...," he repeated Kasuf's gesture, "inviting us to go with him." He then turned to me. "We were looking for signs of civilization. Obviously, we found it. You want me to get us back home, this is our best shot."

"He's right, Commander," Brown added. "I took some readings of what they're mining back there. It's the same material as the Stargate."

"No need to convince me, guys. Brown, can you radio base camp? Tell them to keep that area secured until we get back," I said.

"Yes, sir," he replied before he got to work on that.

* * *

We had been walking for the past hour and my legs were getting sore. Despite being as fit as Ryu Hayabusa the Super Ninja, my mind was still thinking like an overweight guy does. So my brain was sending pain signals to my legs because it still thought I was overweight. It seemed that it would take a little while to get used to the new fitness level of my body.

"Are we there yet?" I asked like a little kid.

"Yu-yu," Kasuf said as he pointed ahead of us. I looked up to see a large stone city in the distance.

"Finally," I muttered.

"Yu liik. Yu-yu," Skaara said as he beckoned us to the city. Daniel followed but Brown and I stood back a bit as Brown took out a camera and snapped a photo of it before we followed Daniel.

As we came close to what looked like the main gate, Daniel started to sneeze again. This had Kasuf look around in confusion, only to see him go off again. He took out his hanky and blew loudly into it.

"Seriously! How in the hell does travelling make one sneeze?" I asked in bewilderment to no-one in particular. Daniel stuffed the cloth back into his pocket, only for it to be stolen unknowingly by one of Skaara's friends who looked too curious for his own good. I think his name was Nabeh. There was a small amount of arguing with Nabeh and Skaara over the cloth, to which Sha're giggled in amusement. I chuckled as the argument was won by Skaara in the end with a stern "Snoph-ai." He then tapped Daniel on the shoulder and handed back the liberated handkerchief with an apologetic smile. Daniel returned the smile and glanced at Sha're, who noticed the glance and went back to looking ahead of her.

I sidled up to Daniel and grinned slyly at him. "Already eyeing yourself some alien booty, eh?"

He looked wildly at me. "What? No!" he protested until he noticed the grin on my face. "Oh, you're joking again, right?" he asked.

"Maybe," I replied with a mysterious grin.

By now we had finally reached the gates of the city. Basic timber catwalks were strung up above us. Daniel's eyes were all over the place, taking in as many sights as possible. As we continued into the city, Kasuf was gesturing and giving orders around him. We came to a stop and Kasuf gave one last order before he turned to us, spoke a few words, and began to prostrate in front of us, with everyone following his example. I looked up to see the coverings over a large metal disk move away.

"The Eye of Ra," Daniel said as he walked forward to get a better look. "It's the Egyptian Sun God." I walked up to stand next to him. "They think he sent us here."

"Now what could have given them that idea?" I asked sarcastically as I reached out and softly tugged at the golden pendant around his neck.

"Ah!" he replied in understanding. He then bent down to Kasuf. "Ra," he said, pointing to the disk. Kasuf warily looked up. "Ra?" Daniel asked before a loud horn sounded off from the top of the wall. Everyone then began to rise and run around with a purpose.

"What's going on?" Kawalski asked.

"Looks to me it might be a-" I was interrupted when Brown's radio started squawking. He pulled it out. "Come in." However it seemed there was too much interference. "Again. Say again. Ferretti, I can't hear you." He turned to me and handed the radio. "Sir, I can't make this out."

I turned on the radio, but all I could hear was loud static. It was impossible to hear anything other than that. "Ferretti, repeat that?" I spoke into the radio, but it was no good.

Kasuf then barked an order and clapped his hands once. In response several guys began to close the gate.

"Sir?" Kawalski asked, his hand on his weapon.

"That can only mean one thing out here. There's a sandstorm coming. We won't be able to go back until it dies down," I explained. In response Kawalski and Brown relaxed. I then watched as a heavy log was placed on the gate to lock it in place. 'I hope Ferretti and the others will be ok,' I thought as I remembered what was coming up for those guys.


	5. PB: Chapter 5: The Calm in the Sandstorm

**Chapter 5: The Calm in the Sandstorm**

The high walls protected us against the winds and sand. It was night time now and delicious smells wafted through the area we were in. Middle Eastern music filled the night air as we sat eating what seemed to be entrée; consisting of flat bread of some sort. Well, at least Daniel was. I was just restraining myself as I also wanted to eat myself.

"Hey Jackson, I don't think we should eat any food here," Kawalski suggested.

"I dunno, they might consider that an insult," he replied with a small smile. Until some sort of armour-skinned large alien creature (like an armadillo) dish was set in front of him. That wiped the smile off his face as he and Brown looked at it, slightly alarmed at the site. Kasuf gestured to the dish, then at Daniel, indicating that he had the honour of taking the first bite.

"Well, we don't want to offend them now, do we, Daniel?" Kawalski grinned.

"Nice comeback," I laughed.

In response Daniel hesitantly reached forward and removed a piece of white meat from the top. He sniffed it before taking a bite out of it. His eyes widened a bit before he took another bite out of it.

"Tastes like chicken," he reported.

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's good!" he replied before taking another bit.

"That's it!" I growled before reaching over and taking a piece for myself. I hesitated before closing my eyes and taking a bite out of it. My eyes instantly opened as I tasted the very identical taste of chicken.

"Son of a bitch!" I blinked in surprise. "It really does taste like chicken! This is one hell of a cliché," I shook my head in surprise before I dug into it some more, laughing in relief.

Kasuf cautiously smiled at our reactions. Daniel saw this and began to try and illustrate what a chicken was. "Tastes...like...bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk bawk bawk bawk." He flapped his arms with his hands tucked under his armpits, trying to imitate a chicken. Kasuf watched him in confusion. The rest of us just laughed in amusement.

"How the hell would they get what a chicken is from that?" I asked.

"Uhh… good point," he realised with an embarrassed grin.

"But keep going. I'm getting so much blackmail material from this," I smiled evilly, to which Kawalski and Brown barked out a laugh.

"So, Daniel," I said, getting his attention. "That's the Egyptian symbol for Ra the Sun God, right?" I pointed at the disk.

"That's right," he nodded.

"Then if they know _one_ Egyptian symbol…" I left it hanging.

"Yes," he agreed before he stood up and crossed over to where Kasuf and a standing Sha're were at. As Daniel squatted down next to him, Kasuf offered his bowl, but Daniel declined. He reached under his shirt and pulled out his necklace. He showed it to Kasuf, who bent his arm and started muttering words that I couldn't hear. Daniel reached and pulled Kasuf's chin back up to face him. He pointed to his necklace again and then reached down and began to draw in the sand; the symbol for Ra. Kasuf immediately reached out with his foot and rubbed the writing out.

"Na-ney. Na-ney," Kasuf replied before he rose up and spoke at length loudly, quietening all activity around us. He quickly pushed Sha're back out of sight, and continued to speak to the crowd in a panicked tone.

"What did you do now?" I moaned at Daniel.

Kasuf held out both hands to Daniel in a 'stop' gesture and spoke beseechingly to him.

"It seems like writing is forbidden to them," Daniel replied, surprised.

Kasuf continued speaking and gesturing. Several old women hurried forward, wrapping Daniel with a blanket and began to herd him out of the circle. The tone of the atmosphere seems happy and excited as everyone cheered for him.

"They want me to go with them. Should I stay?!" Daniel called to us. But it didn't seem the old women were giving him a choice as they continued to bustle him away. "I'll go with them. I'll go. I'll be fine."

I just looked on in amusement. "I think he's going to get laid tonight," I grinned knowingly. Brown seemed a little jealous. I just laughed loudly at his reaction.

* * *

'**You don't have to clean them, you know. They're made to stay clean,'** Amy said as I ran a polishing cloth over Oathkeeper.

'I know, but I still want to. The craftsmanship on them is amazing. Every time I polish them, I enjoy looking at every part of it,' I replied.

'**You boys and your toys,'** the Ancient in my head replied in amusement.

'Yeah, yeah. And women are completely different with their toys,' I replied sarcastically. 'I haven't had the chance to test out these babies and my skills out yet. But I will soon.'

I then noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Skaara looking at me polishing my guns. "Come on in, kiddo," I said as I gestured for him to come inside. He did so, sitting on the windowsill. He pointed at Oblivion, which was lying next to me. I picked it up, removed the cartridge that still had all the unused bullets inside before snapping the handgun closed and passed it to him, handle first. Skaara hesitantly took it from me and I tossed him a second cleaning cloth. I then continued to polish Oathkeeper, with Skaara trying to copy me by polishing Oblivion.

'I reckon Daniel and his girlfriend have found the old catacombs by now,' I said to Amy.

'**And Ra's ship is docked at the pyramid,'** she replied.

'I guess the show is about to start,' I sighed mentally. I then pulled out my CD Walkman and headphones from my pack. I slipped the headphones on my head and turned on the Walkman. The song that played in the Hanged Man at night in the Dragon Age 2 game started up and I began to tap my foot to the beat of the song. I looked over to Skaara who had completely stopped trying to polish Oblivion and was now staring at the Walkman with immense curiosity. I removed the headphones and gestured for him to come closer. When he did so, I placed the headphones over his ears and pressed play on the Walkman. His eyes widened as the song flowed from the speakers into his ears. He looked at me in awe and fascination as he started to bob his head to the beat.

I just smiled. Skaara made to pass the gadget back, but I placed my hand on it and pushed it back to him. "You keep it," I said. It took a few tries before he got the message. I then shooed him out of the room. After half an hour of polishing Oblivion, I walked over to Brown, who was trying to get through on the radio. "Any luck?" I asked.

"Nothing," he replied.

"The interference?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"No. They're simply not there," he clarified.

"Well, it seems the sandstorm is past. We should get back to the others. Let's split up and find Daniel," I said.

"Yes, sir," Brown and Kawalski nodded.

* * *

After another half an hour we still couldn't find him. All we found was his jacket, which I was currently holding. "Sorry sir, but I couldn't find Jackson," Kawalski reported.

"Right… well pack up and get ready to move out. I'll take another look around," I replied. The lieutenant saluted me before I noticed Skaara and his friends watching me. I returned the salute quickly before Kawalski went back to our room to pack up.

"Well, this'll be fun," I muttered to myself before I walked over to the kids.

'**Let me give you a hand,'** Amy said.

'A hand?' I asked before I clenched my eyes shut as pain assaulted my brain. It only lasted two seconds though.

'Ow! What gives Amy?' I asked as I shook my head. I then blinked as I realised that I knew how to speak fluent Abydonian.

'**You're welcome,'** she said, and I could tell she was smirking in an amused way just from her voice.

'Guess we're going to cheat a little,' I sighed as Skaara and his friends walked towards me. _"Hello kids. I'm looking for Daniel,"_ I said in perfect Abydonian.

There was a loud gasp from the collective in front of me. _"You speak the words of our ancestors?"_ Skaara asked.

"_For the moment. Don't tell the others from my team, ok?"_ I asked. He hesitantly nodded. _"Right. Now I'm looking for Daniel. The one your sister was given to."_

"_Ah. I haven't seen him for a while. But I know how you can find him. Can I borrow that?"_ he asked, pointing to the jacket I held in my hand. I held it out to him. Taking it from me, he ran over to the ox beast thing and stuffed it in front of its nose.

'Well, I'm glad I didn't have to try and explain that to them in English. Would've ended up just looking like a jackass,' I thanked mentally.

It only took a few good sniffs before the ox thing started to get really lively. Skaara opened the pen and the animal moved forward with a purpose.

"_We follow him, huh? Nice thinking kiddo,"_ I grinned before we followed the big animal ox thing with Kawalski and Brown joining us. After several minuted of following the animal through the winding streets of the city, we came across a small opening in a building.

"_It's the forbidden place. We're not supposed to go in there,"_ Skaara warned.

"_It's ok. It's not forbidden for me. I'll go inside,"_ I replied before I moved forward.

"_Wait!"_ Skaara said suddenly and I turned back to him. _"I'll go with you."_ He then walked over and unhooked a fire torch nearby. He handed it to me.

"_Thanks,"_ I replied before I stepped inside, with Skaara, Brown and Kawalski behind me.

Once inside I straight away saw the Earth Stargate symbol. I also heard voices in the distance so I continued along the path, turned a corner and saw Daniel with Sha're, and they were talking to each other in Abydonian.

"Not my idea for a romantic date, but whatever works for you Daniel," I said in English, startling him.

"Huh?! Oh hi… scared me," he laughed nervously.

"So, quick learner, huh? With the language," I asked.

"Well, it's an ancient Egyptian dialect. I mean, it's like the rest of their culture. It's evolved completely independently. But...uh...once you know the vowels...," he tried to explain.

"Yeah yeah, so on and so forth. Can you speak the lingo now?" I asked.

"Well—uh. I-I me—I just had to learn how to pronounce it. I mean, it hasn't been a living, spoken language in more than one thousand years. I mean, look at this." Here Daniel pointed to a written passage on the wall. "It says, uh: 'A traveller from distant stars escaped from a dying world looking for a way to extend his own life.'" He then pointed to a picture of what looked like a pictogram of an Asgard.

I knew that this was Famrir, who at the time of Ra stealing his body, was Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. When Ra switched bodies, a Tok'ra operative within Ra's ranks was able to spirit him away and back to his people. But even though they were able to heal his body, his mind was deeply poisoned by the unstable blending of Ra's symbiote with his own. This led him to madness and in his campaign to wipe out every last Goa'uld in existence, he cared little for innocent casualties and became just as reckless as the Goa'uld he was fighting.

"'His body, decaying and weak...he couldn't prevent his own demise.' Apparently his whole species was becoming extinct. 'So he travelled...' or 'searched', '...the galaxies looking for a way to cheat death.' And uh...look here." Now Daniel pointed to another pictograph showing a pyramid with the sun above it. Humans were drawn as small figures below the pyramid. Another picture shows lights coming down from a pyramid, with a young boy under them all.

"'He came to a world, rich with life, where he encountered a primitive race—humans.' Heh. 'A species which, with all his powers and knowledge, he could maintain indefinitely. He realized within a human body, he had a chance for a new life.' Now, he apparently found a young boy. It says: 'As the frightened villagers ran, night became day. Curious, and without fear, he walked towards the light.' Ra took him and possessed his body—like some kind of a...parasite looking for a host. And inhabiting this human form, he appointed himself ruler." The rest of the pictographs showed Ra as ruler over the people and an active Stargate with people walking through it.

"He used the Stargate to bring thousands of people here to this planet, as workers for the mines, just like the one we saw," Daniel continued as he moved over to point at another picture showing workers bring the mineral as offerings to Ra. "This mineral is clearly the building block of all his technology. With this, he can sustain eternal life. Now, something happened—where is it—back on Earth. A rebellion or uprising, and the Stargate was buried there." Another pictograph showed the uprising. "Fearful of a rebellion here, Ra outlawed reading and writing. He didn't want the people to remember the truth."

"Well let's hope we don't come across this bad boy, or we're going to get our asses kicked," I replied, even though I knew it was his ass that was going to get whopped.

"Jackson!" Kawalski called and we turned to see him pointing down another passage. "I think you'd better take a look at this."

Daniel and I followed Kawalski to where Brown and Skaara were at. I saw a round stone, similar to the centre piece of the Earth Stargate cover stone, imbedded in the wall.

"That looks like what we've been looking for," I said as I pointed at the piece.

"Yes! That's it! They must've hidden it here in hopes that one day the gate on Earth could be reopened. I knew they'd have it written down someplace," Daniel exclaimed in excitement. He stepped forward to the stone and started wiping sediment off the markings. He stopped when he felt a jagged edge where the bottom of the stone had broken off.

"Wait a minute. Where's the seventh symbol? It must have broken." Daniel began to frantically look around the floor in the hopes that the broken piece was nearby. "It's gotta be here, somewhere. It's gotta-got it here!" He picked up two pieces and placed them together.

"It's worn out. I can't make it work without the seventh symbol," Daniel replied, dismayed.

"Aww it's ok, Danny boy. All we need to do is try a max of 39 times to get the correct address to go back home. It'll be the only one we can get a lock on to so it won't take long," I replied, clapping Daniel on the shoulder. Kawalski and Brown sighed in relief as the knowledge that they were really going home sunk in. Daniel also looked happy, but still had a wishful look in there somewhere. Probably wanted to stay here.

"But I think it's time we got moving back home. We'll come back soon, but we need more supplies and equipment if we want to set up something more permanent," I suggested before turning around and walking out of the catacombs.

* * *

(AN: For all you die hard Stargate fans out there who know all the lore off by heart, I know it's not actually mentioned that Famrir was Supreme Commander in his day, but I'm gonna go with the idea that he was in this story. Doesn't impact the story in any way.)


	6. PB: Chapter 6: Captured

**Chapter 6: Captured**

We left the confines of the city in the early morning. The sun had not yet risen over the horizon, but its light was slowly brightening up the land and sky. The only sound that could be heard was the soft crunching of our boots on the sand. I looked back to see Daniel doing the same for Sha're, who was the only one to see us off.

"Don't worry, Daniel. You'll see your girlfriend soon," I called to him. He turned to me and hurried over.

"She's not my-" he began to say.

"Whatever," I interrupted, shrugging, but I had a small grin on my face. "So, I'm thinking we should bring back a few goodies for the kids. Any ideas?"

"How bout some of those wind up aeroplane toys?" Brown suggested.

"Excellent choice Lieutenant," I nodded in approval.

"How bout a baseball glove and ball?" Kawalski asked.

"Not really my style, but yeah. Who knows, these kids might dig that. I'll probably buy a few boomboxes and load them all with great music. And batteries," I grinned.

"I think some more writing materials. We can try to get these people to write again," Daniel said.

"Another excellent choice. We're gonna need a few jeeps to carry all this stuff. I wonder if one can fit through the Stargate?" I wondered. "I could so totally pick up alien chicks in a jeep."

"You think a small tank could fit through?" Kawalski asked. "You know, just in case those guys on the paintings come back. These folks look like they could use the firepower to drive them off."

"If not we can just bring em here in pieces and assemble them over this end. But you can't pick up chicks in a tank," I sighed.

"Oh I dunno. You could always say, 'Hey there! Want to check out my big gun?'" Brown replied. I erupted into laughter along with Kawalski and Amy in my head.

"That's a horrible pick up line. It would never work," Daniel said.

"Well it's better than, 'I'm an archaeologist and I want to excavate your tunnel," I grinned.

'**Ohhh, BURN!'** Amy cackled madly. It seemed that the two Lieutenants thought the same as they began to laugh loudly at my excellent counter.

"Oh, shut up!" Daniel replied irritably. But he looked like he was having trouble smiling himself.

"Aww, what's wrong, Danny? Is your seperwasion with your hot alien booty making you gwumpy?" I asked with baby lisping. Brown and Kawalski were almost on the ground in tears from all the laughing.

Daniel then got an evil gleam in his eye and I hesitated a bit. "Well, at least I have a hot alien woman all to myself," he smirked.

"…fuck," I growled as Kawalski and Brown finally gave up and collapsed to the ground in laughter. Amy was also giggling loudly.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!" I growled as the lieutenants picked themselves up off the ground. 'You just wait. There are many hot characters in this story and I'm gonna make sure I bang at least a few of them.'

We then continued on in silence. We kept to the bottom of the sand dunes so we wouldn't wear ourselves out. Therefore we didn't see the pyramid. But I knew where to go. By now, even though the sun still hadn't risen, the sky was awash with oranges, yellows and blues.

I heard a sound, but I didn't turn around. I knew what it was. Skaara and his buddies were following us. Kawalski also seemed to have noticed.

"Uh, sir? Those kids are following us," he reported.

"It's ok, Kawalski," I replied and he relaxed.

We then clambered up a sand dune so we would see the pyramid. We crested the dune and came face to face with a giant metal pyramid shaped building instead. The rising sun, which had not touched our faces yet, bathed the tip of the building in a rosy glow. The three moons framed the building like it did with the pyramid yesterday.

The three of us hit the sand on the edge of the dune, Kawalski and Brown readying their guns. I pulled out my binoculars and took a look of the building, which I knew was Ra's ship. Ra's symbol was even stamped on the four sides of the top section.

"I don't remember that being there when we left," I said lightly as I dropped my binoculars.

"What the hell is that?" Brown asked as he cocked his 9 mil. I removed Oblivion and Kawalski go an eyeful of it, temporarily distracting him from the looming metal building in the background. "What is that?" he asked.

"This," I replied as I hefted the gun up to his eyes, "Is known as Oblivion. It's my personal and preferred firearm and it has a twin, known as Oathkeeper."

"Interesting names," Daniel replied.

"Yes, well, how bout we discuss my guns another time. There's still a huge bloody metal thing that we've got to worry about first?" I asked pleasantly.

"Right. Sorry, Commander," Kawalski replied.

Brown also nodded before he handed the loaded pistol to Daniel. "Here. You might need this," he said before I rose up and made a dash for the temple entrance, with Kawalski, brown and then Daniel following.

I entered and did a quick sweep of what I could see before jogging over to the makeshift camp in the middle of the room. I heard Kawalski cock his rifle loudly as he and Brown took up defensive positions behind me. I reached down and picked up some spent ammunition cartridges. I was now very nervous as I knew that there was at least one Horus Guard somewhere in this room.

'**Calm down Josh,'** Amy said gently.

'I can't help it. This will be my first fire fight after all,' I replied before I quickly dove for cover behind a pillar, with Daniel doing the same, facing me.

There was silence for a few moments before-

'**Josh! Brown is about to be killed!'**

I threw myself around the pillar to Brown's position and saw the Horus Guard strike Brown in the face with his staff. I didn't hesitate as I brought up Oblivion and fired a single shot which blasted through his firing hand. The Horus Guard cried out in pain and retreated behind a pillar.

"Brown!" I hissed at him. He understood my look and rose from the ground, weapon in hand. He was bleeding from the nose where he was struck, but it was superficial. I then returned to where Daniel was.

At that point I saw Kawalski fly through the air after being thrown.

'Shit! A second Horus Guard?' I cursed mentally.

'**It's ok. He's just unconscious. He'll be ok,'** Amy replied.

I then came face with the second enemy as he pointed his weapon at an exposed Daniel. "Look out!" I cried out as I pulled on his jacket, yanking him out of the line of fire, just as an energy shot blasted a sizable chunk out of the pillar.

I then ran for the Stargate with Daniel right behind me. I heard the heavy crack of a staff weapon hitting something, probably Brown, but no charging sound followed, meaning that he was now also unconscious.

"Where are we going?" Daniel asked as another energy blast hit the wall where his head was a millisecond before.

"You're going to start dialling the 39 possible combinations until we get a hit. I'll cover you until you get a lock. Then you go through. I'll stay behind to try and get Kawalski and Brown to go through with me!" I replied as we entered the room with the Stargate. I went for the back compartment where the bomb was stored. Or should have been stored anyways. It was gone.

"Guess it was too much to hope for," I muttered.

"What are you looking for?" Daniel asked.

"Oh… just the Mark III nuclear device that was stored in the back here," I replied lightly.

"The WHAT!?" Daniel cried out in surprise.

"Well the back-up plan was if we came across any vastly powerful alien dudes on this side of the gate, I was to use the bomb to blow the gate on this side, therefore eliminating the risk of the baddies using the gate to get to our world and generally fucking it up. So, bad guys found, so I was gonna blow the gate, but it's gone so that plan's gone to shit!" I explained.

Before Daniel could question further though, a sound directed our attention to the ceiling where a section opened up and what looked like several mini Stargates lowered themselves down until they stopped on the ground, stacked very uniformly on top of each other.

"Oh Amaterasu's Kicker-Weasels," I sighed, causing Amy to go into a long line of surprised coughing, as a light sunk down and Anubis, Ra's First Prime (not the half ascended arrogant bastard with a god complex) dematerialised within the rings. Anubis spoke a few Goa'uld words at us as the two guards from the other room flanked him. Poor Daniel was shaking as he pointed the 9 mil Brown gave him at the main guy. Anubis levelled his Staff weapon at us and charged the weapon, but didn't shoot. He simply waited.

"Daniel… put it down. We're out gunned here," I replied slowly. Even though my skills told me I could easily headshot all three in the blink of an eye, I knew, without Amy saying so, that our capture was necessary.

Daniel hesitated, before he slowly lowered the gun.

A few minutes later, after being effectively disarmed, we were ringed onto the ship. Daniel and I watched as the rings disappeared through an opening in the ceiling. I took note of the jewelled button Anubis pressed on his gauntlet, which deactivated the rings.

"Yatta," Anubis growled as he pushed us forward with his staff. We were in a large throne room with a highly polished marble floor, large round pillars on either side of us, and a large seat at the other end of the room. Steps led to another chamber behind the seat and two hawk statues flanked the seat, with their wings outstretched as if to shelter whoever sat on the throne. Smoke from two torches behind the seat rose up to gather near the roof.

A loud rumbling sounded as the outer shell of the ship split apart and the top parts sheathed themselves in their bottom pieces. Undoubtedly, this activation would have been sweet to watch from outside as we watched the morning sunlight flood the room.

"Wow, that's some big ass power windows," I whispered to Daniel, who simply nodded, entranced.

There was a loud clunk as the movements stopped and we were shoved forward again by Anubis. The first two guards had walked ahead of us and now stood still. We came up to stand next to them and one of them struck Daniel in the backs of his knees, bringing him crashing into a kneeling position painfully. Then Anubis did the same for me and I winced as my knees collided hard against the floor. "Ow," I growled at the First Prime before I settled into a more comfortable position.

I looked up to see a large pair of doors swing inwardly, revealing a bright light behind them. At that point I watched as Ra and his entourage enter through the doors. The entourage was made up of young boys and girls. Ra himself was garbed in ornate robes and he wore an elaborate gold headpiece that looked like a pharaoh's mask, which covered his face completely.

I watched, slightly disgusted at this procession, as Ra made his way to the throne chair and settled in it with the kids settling around him as if creating a living frame for the Supreme System Lord.

"You have come here to destroy me," Ra said, and I was surprised that I could understand him. He wasn't speaking Abydonian, but Goa'uld. I then realised that Amy was probably translating for me.

As soon as Ra had finished his statement, two servants brought in the bomb. "Oh, there it is," I murmured lightly as it was placed between us.

"That's the bomb?" Daniel asked me and I turned to see his accusing glare at me. "Look, it wasn't my idea. It was the general's. Honest!" I replied. "I told you, it was a back-up plan in case these alien guys were still around."

Ra then gestured to his First Prime with an order and Anubis brought up his hand to press a small button on the side of his Jackal head shaped helmet. I watched in interest as the helmet slowly broke apart and folded in on itself like a Transformer, until his head was shown.

"Cool…" I replied with a small smile. We then watched as the second Horus Guard did the same, showing a brown skinned male.

And then we turned to Ra as his headpiece did the same, showing his feminine and youthful looks. I gave a very subtle amused smirk while in my head I said, 'Bishonen much?' Amy cracked up at the comment, despite the tense situation I was in. The three underlings then bowed to one knee.

'**You know what you have to do, right?'** Amy asked after she recovered from the bishonen comment.

'Do I have to?' I whined.

'**Yes, you do,'** she replied firmly. I sighed heavily before I reached out quickly at Anubis next to me and punched him in the face, knocking him back and grabbing his staff weapon. Quickly learning how to fire the thing, and ignoring Daniel's outcries, I fired and killed the second guard quickly but I couldn't turn swiftly enough to kill the third and final guard, who was already aiming his primed weapon at me. But then Daniel jumped between the guard and me, raising his arms out wide.

"No!" he cried out before the third guard fired the shot originally aimed for me, but struck Daniel hard in the chest.

"Daniel!" I yelled. Even though I knew he would be ok, it was still a shock for me to see him go down like that. I turned on the spot swiftly and prepared to shoot Ra, but the kids had already gathered in front of their god, as a human shield.

Before I could even act surprised and conflicted, pain exploded from the back of my head as I was knocked to the ground by Anubis. I rolled over onto my back and blearily looked at him, my vision swimming. He then struck me again, and darkness took me.

* * *

I came to as soon as the water hit me. I rose up, ready to lash out, but stopped when I saw Kawalski in front of me.

"Commander! It's me!" he said with a hand on my shoulder.

"Kawalski?" I asked before I looked around. Freeman and Ferretti were in the corner, with Brown still alive next to Kawalski. Ferretti seemed to be recovering from a nasty hit to the head.

"You alright?" Brown asked.

"Yeah… just dandy," I muttered.

The sound of a heavy grate grinding over our heads made us look up. We saw the opening close over and Anubis smirking at us before leaving.

"Well, I guess we're gonna be here for a while," I sighed before floating over to a wall and leaning up against it.

"Where's Jackson?" Kawalski asked.

"He's fine. At least I hope he is," I replied, replaying that shot over in my head.

'**Don't worry. He'll be ok. Well, as ok as one would be after being told that he has to execute his companions or he and everyone he came into contact with will be destroyed,'** Amy said.

"Well, I guess there's only one thing to do now," I said before I pulled my harmonica out of my back pocket and began to play a slow jazzy tune in the hopes of calming my comrades.


	7. PB: Chapter 7: Escape

**Chapter 7: Escape**

For the next 24 hours we floated in that cell. No food was given to us, and the only water we had we were floating in. But surprisingly the water was hardly contaminated and was almost the same as regular tap water, according to Amy.

The next day we were displayed in front of Ra on the ramp outside the temple. Behind us, a thousand Abydonians prostrated in front of their 'god'. There were two Horus guards next to us, with one of them clutching my guns. The man himself walked out with his usual possie.

"Rise," Ra spoke in Goa'uld, and I heard everyone behind us get to their feet as Ra settled in his seat. Then out from the shadowed entrance, walked Daniel, completely healed.

'That sarcophagus sure is a marvel of tech. If only there were no side effects to using it continuously,' I said to Amy.

'**Well we perfected the healing effect with no bad sides already. The Goa'uld's copied version is just flawed. And they've made no move to perfect it themselves,'** she replied.

Anubis thrusted a staff weapon at Daniel, ordering him to take it. He slowly took it and began to walk just a slowly down the ramp. But as he did so, a bright reflective light crossed his eyes. And I recognised the shape of the reflection.

'A CD?' I asked.

'**Skaara must be using the one in the CD player you gave him,'** Amy replied.

'Ahh, clever boy,' I smiled mentally. I then frowned a bit. 'Hang on, how did he know how to open it?'

'**He might've had a bit of a push in the right direction,'** she replied.

'You introduced yourself? Wouldn't that screw with the timeline or something?' I asked.

'**No, I just very subtly changed the course of his thoughts to investigate the player and the reflective properties of the CD. He believes that he thought of it all,'** Amy explained.

'Ah, I see. Very sneaky. I like it!' Amy giggled in response.

Daniel noticed the light as he reached us and pointed the staff at me. I saw his eyes shift to the left and show surprise and hope. He then looked back at me and primed the weapon. There was a pause.

And then Daniel turned and fired off the energy, which impacted in the middle of the small squad of Horus Guards in front of Ra, killing one of them for being too close to the blast. At that point gunfire was heard behind us and I sped forward to the guard who had my guns. "MY guns bitch!" I yelled as I jumped up and delivered an axe kick to his head, smashing him into the ground. I picked up my guns and dashed into the crowd with Daniel, Kawalski and the rest of the survivors of my squad right behind me.

Skaara quickly met up with us and threw brown cloaks over us to disguise us from the Horus Guards. And speaking of them, they began to open fire on the crowd, but most of them missed hitting anyone since the whole crowd was in a panic.

But somehow Anubis managed to spot us and ordered a shot fired at us, which struck Freeman and downed him. Kawalski and I tried to go back for him, but Skaara and the others forced us to keep running away from the pyramid.

We crossed the sand in a mad dash, unsure of where we were supposed to go. But Skaara was there to direct us to the beast thing from before (**'Mastadge.'** 'Not now Amy!'). We jumped onto its back and, with a little encouragement from Skaara in the form of gunfire, the beast took off with Daniel and I desperately trying to hold onto the harness.

* * *

As we crossed the dessert, a duststorm kicked up. By now nightfall was almost on us and I could barely see where I was going. It was only thanks to Amy's directions that I knew I wasn't walking around in circles. Daniel was walking next to me, behind the beast, and struggling a lot. Eventually he collapsed onto the ground.

"Daniel!" I called but he remained unresponsive. So I walked over to him and shielded him from the wind with my body.

I don't know how long I was there. Minutes or hours. But then I heard Skaara's voice on the wind and I looked up to see Skaara and his buddies moving toward us. I then heaved myself to my feet and picked Daniel up, throwing him over my shoulder.

We then continued to walk with Skaara leading us. After what seemed like hours we came across an outcrop of rocky cliffs, the surface smoothed from years and years of sand blowing against them. There was a path up the cliffs and we walked up it and into a set of caves.

As soon as I was inside I gently set a recovering Daniel on the floor and sat down among the large group of Abydonians and the rest of my team. It seemed they got here before us and we were some of the last to return. I sighed and rubbed my sore knees that I got from walking so damn much.

"_To our victory!"_ Skaara cheered and the rest followed suite. He then showed the rifle he was carrying. _"We recovered your weapons,"_ he said. I still understood Abydonian but I was around my team.

"Here Commander," Kawalski offered me some water.

"Thanks," I replied as I slurped down the water. I then looked around at the kids who were handling the rifles with quite a bit of skill.

"So, whaddya think?" Kawalski asked. "I mean, they're not exactly special forces, but they sure were eager to join up."

"They sure have gotten good at using them," I replied. "Your handiwork I presume?"

"Yeah. Brown and I taught them a few things and they learn quick," he said.

"Well I won't turn down the extra help," I grinned.

"So what's the plan then, Commander?" Brown asked.

"For the moment we heal up and plan our next move. Ra is going to be searching for us," I began, but Daniel cut me off from saying more on the subject.

"Why don't you just tell them everything?" he asked as he looked at me accusingly. "Why don't you tell 'em about the bomb?"

"I told you, it wasn't my idea. It was all the General's," I protested.

"You still could've told us. Told me," he replied.

I sighed. "Yeah… I guess you've got a point there."

"What are you talking about?" Kawalski asked.

"Right. Well the back-up plan was if we encountered any hostile enemy forces on this side of the gate, I was to detonate a Mark III nuke to destroy the gate on this side to prevent them from sending forces through. And I'm pretty sure the douchebag with a god complex counts as hostile," I explained.

"Well your bomb is his now. And tomorrow he's going to send it back to Earth. Along with a shipment of that mineral they mine here. And when that thing goes off, it's going to cause an explosion a hundred times more destructive than that bomb alone is capable of," Daniel said.

"Ahh, crap," I sighed. "That only gives us a very small window to make a grab for it. I wonder if we can pull it off."

"Why wasn't I told all this?" Kawalski asked.

"I don't suppose I could use the excuse 'It's above your paygrade'?" I asked with a hopeful grin. The look on his face told me that wasn't going to work. "No? Ok. Well there wasn't a reason to do so. We were going to go back through the Stargate, leaving that bomb ticking away behind us to explode."

"But it's the gate on our side that poses the problem," Daniel replied.

"I know. So now there's only one way left to use that bomb. We kill a guard guy who has the controls for that ring teleporter thingy, snag it from him, snag the bomb, force Ra to leave the planet with a rebellion and just before he's out of range, we teleport the bomb through the rings and blow his ship to pieces," I said eagerly.

"How are we going to do that?" Brown asked.

"Well we'll need Skaara's help to get the rebellion up and going. We sneak into the temple and kill the guards. We wait in ambush for the bomb to be brought to the gate and kill them too. Then Skaara works his magic with the rebellion and makes Ra leave. And the rest is easy," I explained.

There was silence. "I think that could work," Daniel said, nodding.

"Then we've got some planning to do," I grinned.

* * *

We stayed up for most of the night planning the rebellion. I had recently just gone to sleep, getting in some much needed rest when Daniel woke me up.

"Wazzizit?" I replied sleepily.

"I found it!" he said quickly.

"Found what, your girlfriend's lips? It's about damn time; she's had the hots for you for quite a while now," I grunted before yawning loudly.

"Not that!... and how do you even know about that?" Daniel squawked.

"Cause you just told me," I grinned mischievously. "It was because Skaara was grinning from ear to ear at some point last night and I didn't see you or Sha're around so I assumed you were making out with your girlfriend."

"Oh, actually, we're married," he said casually, but I could tell he was as happy as a teenage boy who finally lost his virginity and couldn't wait to brag about it to his friends.

"Married? Well congrats. But surely this could've waited until I got some more shuteye?" I growled the last part.

"Hmm?" he blinked before realisation hit his eyes. "Oh yes! I know what the seventh symbol is now!"

"Good on ya, Danny. Always had faith in you. But it didn't really matter as we only had to try 39 times you know. But once is better than 39."


	8. PB: Chapter 8: Operation Sun Destroyer

**Chapter 8: Operation Sun Destroyer**

The heat. The sand. The sound of 10,000 slaves mining and working. And the voice of a Horus guard yelling angrily in the background. These were the sounds that could be heard as the Abydonians toiled away. The Horus guard walked menacingly toward a slave who was struggling and struck the end of his staff at his side, bowling him over into the hot sand.

In that instant, several of the slaves rose up with machine guns in their hands. I quickly pushed the hood of my desert slave clothing back and raised an energy staff that had remained hidden in the sand until now, and fired a shot into the enemy's chest, blasting him back into a wagon.

Kasuf looked on in horror as I turned to my team and motioned them to continue with the plan. "You'll bring disaster to us all, son!" he cried out in Abydonian as Skaara came forward.

"Father, we will not live as slaves!" he argued, but Kasuf just forced him onto his knees as he began to pray, the others following his example. Skaara continued to get him to see reason, but he did not falter.

"Kasuf!" Daniel called to him, and the old chief paused in his prayers, caught off guard for a moment. Daniel took this opportunity as he walked over to the dead guard, smoke still rising from his wound. "Take a look at your Gods," he spoke in the Abydonian dialect as he pressed the button on the guard's helmet, making it fold into itself to reveal the jaffa's face behind it. "Take a good look," he finished off as he walked over to me, Shau'ri following him. A low bussing noise rose from those closest to the dead jaffa as they all saw his face. Kasuf rose to his feet, as did all of the slaves.

The next hour was spent convincing Kasuf to bring on the rebellion. At first he was unsure, but after a lot of persuading by Daniel, he finally agreed. Then we journeyed to Ra's ship with the wagons that were loaded with naquadah to enhance the bomb. As we came in sight, Kawalsky spoke up.

"So what's the plan again, sir?" he asked.

"Before Kasuf begins his site of the attack, we'll do what we can to kill off as many guards as we can to keep casualties as low as possible, and snag one of their gloves that activates those teleportation rings. Then when the rebellion is in full swing, Ra will do one of two things. Either show off his superior power by blasting a few shots from space in his ship to bring the Abydonians under his control once again, or he'll just piss off. Either way, he'll go up in that pointy ship of his. Then, we use the glove to teleport the bomb to his ship with only a few seconds before it goes off and Boom! No more Ra," I explained.

"You do realise that a lot of things have to go right if we're to pull it off, sir," Brown asked.

"I know, but it's the only good plan we've got," I replied. "Now hush. We're almost there."

My group continued up the ramp to the temple, while Kawalsky, Brown and Skaara remained behind with the bulk of the caravan. As we walked up the ramp, Shau'ri shot me a nervous glance. I caught it and smiled confidently back before I lowered my head so the Horus guards wouldn't see my face. We moved inside the temple and stopped as a third Horus guard joined the two door guards who had walked in with us. We all kept out heads bowed and, one by one, our hoods were forcibly removed.

When he removed mine, I brought up Oblivion and pointed it at his chest. He looked down and then back at me rapidly, as if he wasn't sure what just happened.

"Booya motherfucker!" I grinned before letting loose a three shot blast that killed him. The others readied their weapons and began to fire at the remaining two. However it seemed that no-one had my luck as they both retreated behind pillars, bullets scratching their armour and sparks flashing in the low light of the room.

I flattened myself against the pillar closest to the door, but watched as it quickly closed. I saw Kawalsky and the others try to make it as they clambered up the ramp, but they weren't quick enough as an energy blast was directed at the floor of the entrance, sending out a heavy blast of dust and wind. Then the door closed.

I whipped round and pulled off another three bullet blast to his chest, the bullets penetrating his armour and downing him. A sudden screeching sound reached my ears and I knew that our surprise attack was over and that Death Gliders had been dispatched to destroy the forces outside. The sound of gunfire reached my ears as Kawalsky's group engaged the fighter ships.

"C'mon!" I called as I jogged over to the entrance of the gate room. I spotted the bomb in front of the gate and stood the main component upright.

"**You need to ready the timer now,"** Amy said. **"Kasuf's army is approaching."**

'Kay,' I replied mentally as I slotted the detonator into the top and flipped the on switch. The timer showed seven minutes. I then turned on my radio as Daniel and Shau'ri entered the room.

"Kawalsky! Brown! Come in!" I spoke into the radio.

"Commander, we're ok, but we're pinned down by two bogies!" Kawalsky's voice came through.

A loud voice echoed through the room and a fearful cry from Shau'ri was the only warning I got. But I was waiting for it. I spun around, raising Oblivion up and with no hesitation, shot a single bullet. The metal pellet whizzed past Daniel and Shau'ri's heads and buried itself into the third Horus guard's helmet. He froze, his hands moments away from pressing the fire button, before he toppled backward onto the hard stone dusty ground.

"You ok?" I asked in English. She seemed to get the idea of what I was asking and she nodded. I grinned before I turned to Daniel. "Get ready for reinforcements to come through that teleport," I warned. He nodded and the two of us stood ready, one of us standing on either side of the spot.

We didn't have to wait long as the rings activated and brought down Anubis. He was facing Daniel as the archaeologist pointed Brown's spare 9mm at him. As soon as the last ring rose over Anubis's head, I fired a precision shot at his back which was surprisingly unprotected. The bullet severed his spine just below the neck, and Anubis flopped to the ground like a ragdoll.

"Well that was terribly easy," I muttered, expecting a longer fight with him.

"**It's because you were ready for him,"** Amy replied.

"Now what?" Daniel asked.

"Uhh?" I replied as I looked at the timer, now showing six minutes. "I'll be right back." I took off Anubis's gauntlet and stood in position. I pressed the blue jewel and activated the rings.

"Where are you going?" Daniel cried out in confusion as the rings descended on me.

"To get a little something of yours back," I replied as the final ring stopped and my vision was flooded with white light.

Not a second later I saw myself standing in the throne room with the rings rising back into the ceiling. I looked around, but saw no-one.

"**What are you doing?"** Amy asked.

'Getting the pendant back for Daniel,' I replied. 'Now, Sunny should be around here somewhere.'

I walked slowly and softly off the ring platform and down the hallway. If I remembered correctly, he and his entourage were in a side chamber to the right. And they were, busy looking out the window. Judging from the silence outside, it seemed Kawalsky had surrendered and that Ra was watching that.

I raised Oathkeeper and aimed carefully. Here was a perfect chance of taking him out with his guard down completely. But I wanted a big finale, so I shot Ra in the leg and sprinted towards him. The Supreme System Lord went down with a cry of pain and surprise, his subjects whirling around in confusion. But I was already at Ra's side and I wrenched off the golden pendant.

"I'll take that, Sunny," I said before I ran full tilt out of there. A loud crash behind me told me that Ra had tried to send a kinetic blast towards me with that hand device of his, but missed. I changed direction, just as I felt a rush of air pass where I had been milliseconds ago, and jumped up the stairs of the ring platform. I activated them and watched as Ra limped around the corner as the rings surrounded me.

"Buh-bye!" I waved mockingly at him as I was teleported out of there. I regained my senses back in the gate room and saw Daniel's gun pointed in my direction. He then let out an explosive breath and lowered his arm. He then glared at me. "Why did you do that!"

I grinned and placed the gold pendant in his hand. "Just getting back your bling, is all," I replied.

"Oh…"

I then heard a loud roar that could only come from 10,000 people cheering. "Sounds like Kasuf's finally joined the party," I smiled. I then walked over to the bomb, which only had 2 minutes left, and heaved it over to the ring spot. I placed it carefully on the floor and turned on the radio.

"Kawalsky! Report!"

"Commander! Kasuf's army just arrived and saved us!" the Lieutenant's voice came through. I saw smiles break out on Daniel and Shau'ri at this news, though Shau'ri was most likely picking up the idea of what was just aid thanks to Daniel's smile.

At that moment the whole place began to shake violently. "What's going on?" Daniel yelled.

"Ra's taking off!" I replied. I then blinked as an idea came to me. 'Amy! What's the range on this thing?' I asked mentally as I looked at the gauntlet.

"**Quite far. It's built to be able to handle long range activation,"** she replied.

"Ok, let's go see the show!" I called to Daniel. He nodded and the three of us ran out of the room, into the main temple hall and out through the doors, which had now opened. We ran outside and looked up in time to see the outer layers of Ra's ship close up, preparing to lift off.

We watched in awe as the giant ship slowly lifted off the pyramid and as it gained altitude, it gained speed. Soon, the ship was no longer seen by our eyes as it left the stratosphere.

"And now for the grand finale!" I said as I readied my hand. "Alpha! Mike! Foxtrot!" I then pressed the button. "In other words…" We watched the matter stream shoot out of the top of the pyramid and into the sky.

"ADIOS MOTHERFUCKER!" I then made a gun with my hands at pretended to shoot the ship, wherever it was. A second later there was a bright flash in the sky and a giant shockwave raced out from that point of light.

There was silence before the entire crowd as one began to cheer for joy. We looked out over all the people cheering and raising their fists into the air. And a warm feeling rose up inside me. It was a feeling of accomplishment. We had freed these people. A month ago I never would have believed myself capable of this.

Then I watched as Skaara and a few of his Abydonian friends walked up the ramp a bit, with Skaara looking solemn.

"Oh boy. I know what's coming," I sighed. And I was right as he slowly saluted me, with his friends joining in. Even the remaining members of my team did.

"Man, this is kinda embarrassing, though I'm not sure why," I muttered to myself before I saluted in reply. I then lowered my hand and looked to Daniel, but he was already making out with Shau'ri.

"Well he's not wasting any time," I noted slyly. At that point Kasuf quieted everyone before he cried out and pumped his fist into the air, his people following his lead.

* * *

We stood ready to leave as the active Stargate glistened and shimmered behind us. I shook Skaara's hand before I pulled him in for a hug, which he returned.

"Stay strong, Skaara," I whispered to him in Abydonian.

"And you, my friend," he whispered back before we parted.

"I always knew you'd get us back," Feretti grinned.

"Yeah right," Daniel laughed as the soldier clapped his shoulder. "Later." He then stepped through.

"Hey Daniel," Brown smiled as he shook his hand. In return, Daniel handed the 9mm. "Thanks for that," Daniel replied.

"No problem. You stay safe," Brown nodded before he also stepped through the Stargate.

"Thanks Daniel," Kawalski said as he shook his hand. He then joined his comrades.

I walked up to him. "I guess this is it," he said.

"We'll see," I replied mysteriously.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing for you to worry about," I grinned. I then pulled him into a strong hug. "It's been fun, Daniel."

"Yeah… it has," he replied as we released each other.

"You enjoy that fine alien booty you've scored yourself, ok?" I said as my eyes flicked over to Shau'ri. She smiled in response. "Well, just stay out of trouble." I then walked toward the Stargate, but I turned once more to look at everyone who had come to see us off. Daniel then walked up and handed me something.

"Tell Catherine that it brought me luck," he said as I looked at the Ra pendant in my hand.

"I'll be sure not to tell her all the trouble it caused though," I replied and he laughed. I then stepped over to the event horizon but turned back to him. "I'll be seeing you," I said before I stepped through the Stargate.


	9. B1: Chapter 1: You've Been Reinstated, C

**Book 1: The Real Journey Begins**

**Chapter 1: You've Been Reinstated, Commander**

"So, ready for dinner?" I asked from the kitchen as I put the finishing touches to my omelette.

"Absolutely!" Amy replied with a smile.

The last year had gone by surprisingly fast. After fabricating the semi-false report of what happened on the Abydos mission with Kawalsky, Ferreti and Brown, I had retired from the Air Force and had settled down at my new home in Colorado Springs. From there I had worked on getting my mind used to my new fitness level. That was taken care of in the first two months.

After that was just a matter of waiting. But I didn't do nothing, oh no. A month after I was used to my body, my birthday came about, and Amy gave me one hell of a present; a jet black Jaguar E-Type Series III convertible with platinum white leather seats and in perfect working condition. I was totally shocked at the time. I had only dreamed of owning a car like that. Amy then said that a number of 21st century innovations had been flawlessly installed, such as a Bluetooth enabled high end stereo and speaker system, five speed automatic gearbox, 4.7 liter engine, wide alloy spoked rims and so on. Amy went on to say that it was an Eagle Speedster in an E-type Jag.

So I had spent the remainder of the year traveling around the USA with Amy. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time, but never had the money to do so. Those months were some of the best times of my life.

I had discovered something else as well. My appetite had grown quite a bit ever since coming here. I asked Amy about it and she replied that it was most likely a side effect from my new body. My metabolism had jumped up and so now I felt almost constantly hungry. I could be seen as always snacking on something, whether it was a carrot, or a chocolate bar. It was weird, but not unwelcome at all.

I had also worked on growing my stubble into a pointed goatee and moustache. The result was sexy Spanish facial hair. I was very proud of the accomplishment and made an effort to keep it in shape every day.

However, as the months rolled by, I began to have a problem. I was quickly falling in love with Amy. The reason this was a problem was because I knew outright that I had no chance with her, what with her being an Ancient, let alone the most powerful of her kind. I wasn't xenophobic, far from it. It's just that there was no way she would ever accept my feelings. It was like falling in love with a goddess. Actually, for all intents and purposes, it was exactly like that.

So I made extra sure that any feelings for her were kept deep inside me, for one slip up would notify her of my feelings. Then things would get awkward between us and the mission I had for the next decade was way too important for me to be on awkward terms with the ancient who brought me here.

We had just gotten back about a week ago and were just getting back into a nice rhythm of things, when a knock came from the door.

"Amy! Could you get that? I'm kinda busy," I replied as I placed the two halves of the omelette I was cooking onto two plates. There was silence before Amy called back.

"Josh? It's the Air Force," she said.

'Ahh, bout time,' I thought as I picked up the plates. "Invite them in!" I called, placing the plates on the table.

Amy entered the room with two officers. One was Major Samuels. "Evening gents," I greeted as I picked up my plate and began eating the omelette. "What brings you out here?"

"Commander Josh Kitsuné?" Samuels asked.

"Retired, you know," I replied as I took another bite. "Mmm! Still got it."

"I'm Major Samuels," he introduced as I sat down at the table with Amy. "I'm under orders to bring you to see General Hammond, sir."

"Who's he?"

"He replaced General West," Samuels replied.

"You know, you really didn't pick a good time for me. Can't it wait 10 minutes?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, but he says it's important. Has to do with the Stargate."

Amy and I looked at each other before I sighed. "Ok Samuels. Congratulations, you've got my full attention. But I'm still hungry, and you're still gonna wait… 5 minutes until I'm done. Can ya do that?" I asked.

Samuels hesitated before nodding.

"You're too kind," I replied sarcastically before I began to eat at an increased pace. I downed the crumbs and took a swig of water before standing up and pulling on my leather jacket.

"Ok, let's go then."

* * *

Two hours later I found myself escorted into Cheyenne Mountain, past NORAD and into the very bowls of the earth. Amy was back to piggybacking inside me, like back on the Abydos mission and I had to admit, I missed her comforting presence pressing lightly against my mind.

The elevator doors opened at Sublevel 11 and we walked over to a sign-in desk where I placed my signature on the paper.

"We have to take a second elevator the rest of the way, it's a long way down," my escort said.

"I know. Been here before," I replied.

"Oh, of course," he nodded.

The rest of the way down was in silence. Then we were out and down a hallway where Samuels was waiting at the end. My escort relieved the Major and we continued on to where the General's room was. Samuels knocked on the door.

"Come," came a muffled voice from inside. Samuels quickly opened the door and we entered. "General Hammond, Commander Josh Kitsuné," he introduced me to the guy I was going to become well acquainted over the next several years. He looked exactly like his TV series self.

"General," I nodded at him.

"Commander. I hear you're retired. I envy you, Commander," he replied. And I could see the wistfulness in his eyes. I felt sorry for the guy. This assignment was supposed to be an easy last one before he could retire himself, spend time with his grandkids. But Stargate Command needed him. So I pushed my pity to the back of my mind. "Samuels mentioned something about the Stargate?" I asked.

"Down to business. I can do that," he said shortly as he stood up. "This way."

We walked out of his office and over to a secure holding room. Inside were two dead jaffa.

"Anyone you know, Commander?" Hammond asked.

I looked him over and winced as I saw the pouch. 'Eeewww...' I thought.

"They're not human," the doctor noted.

"Nooo! Really?!" I replied very sarcastically.

He just looked at me for a moment before he continued. "Best we can tell these slits are actually a pouch, similar to that found in a marsupial."

"Like a kangaroo?" Samuels asked.

"That's right. Except…" here the doc moved to the second bed that had a sheet over it and pulled it away to reveal a woman with short black hair. "in both sexes."

"These people, or aliens, whatever you wanna call them, came through, killed four of my people and kidnaped another using advanced weapons," the General explained. Samuels then gestured to an airman to fetch one of the advanced weapons, which turned out to be a staff weapon. The General handed it to me. In turn I activated the weapon, amber energy sparking along the tip. I then deactivated it.

"Seen one before, I take it?" Hammond asked.

"Yep. But there were none of these guys on Abydos. They were human. Originally from Earth," I replied. "Thousands of years ago Sunny transported humans there after the slave rebellion in Egypt."

"I know all about that. But your report said that this Ra was in fact some kind of alien that lived inside a human body," said the General.

"Well he liked to do this eye glowy thing," I replied.

The General paused and asked, "Are you sure he's dead, Commander?"

"Unless he could survive a Mark 3 nuke shoved down his throat, figuratively speaking, and detonated, absolutely. Why?" I asked.

"Well, Commander, these people… or whatever they are, were guarding another man who retreated back through the stargate. I got a good look at his eyes, Commander. They glowed."

We then began to walk back to his office. "How do you feel about the Stargate mission after all this time, Commander?" Hammond asked.

"I don't get what you're getting at, General."

"Well, it's been just over a year. Has your perspective changed?"

"Well, as you…" I broke off as I saw Kawalsky, Brown and Ferretti in a room across from the General's room. But the door was shut before anything could be done about it. I followed the General into his room.

"Was that…" I began.

"Kawaslsky, Ferretti and Brown? Yes," he confirmed that Brown was also here. "Served under your command on the first Stargate mission." I watched as the three sat down in the debriefing room, about to be questioned. "Have a seat, Commander."

'Uh-oh, I know that tone. I'm in twoble!' I thought in a baby lisp, sending Amy giggling loudly in my head.

The General looked at Samuel before beginning. "Tell me about Daniel Jackson, Commander."

"Why are you questioning my men?" I deflected as I walked over to the window, looking at them.

"They're not your men anymore, Commander. You retired, remember? Daniel Jackson?"

I turned to him. "You say you've read the report. So you know everything I know."

"Is it?" Samuels asked.

I paused, pretending to be slightly confused. "Something I should know, General?"

"You liked Daniel Jackson, did you?" he asked.

"He was ok. Bit odd, but that was about it," I replied.

"So you didn't have a lot of time for him?" Samuels asked.

"I didn't say anything of the sort. He also saved my life and was able to reactivate the Stargate so my men and I could get home," I replied with an edge creeping into my voice. I never liked Samuels.

"According to the mission brief your orders were to go through the stargate, to detect any possible threat to Earth and if found, to detonate a nuclear device and destroy the gate on the other side," he said.

"That's right," I replied.

"But that's not what you did, is it?" Samuels accused.

"Not at the time. Ra's forces overpowered my team and took the weapon before I could arm it," I explained.

"But, with Dr. Jackson's help, you eventually regained control and did, in fact, detonate the weapon?"

"Yes."

"So to the best of your knowledge, Daniel Jackson and everyone else you knew on Abydos is dead, correct?" the General asked.

"That's right," I replied.

"Good," Hammond said as he stood up. "Then you won't mind if I authorize a go-ahead on our plan." He exited the room and, with a final look at my friends, I followed him.

"This quartz material the stargates are made of, it must be tough stuff if it can withstand a Mark 3," the General said.

"Well, as you know, we sent a probe through after we got back, sir. It was flattened on the other end," I replied. "Even if the nuke didn't pulverise the gate, it would've been buried in the rubble."

"But somehow it got unburied." At that point we entered the gate room and I saw a Mark V nuke ready and primed.

"Aww, crap," I muttered. "You're sending another one?"

"A Mark V this time." The General paused. "Unless you have something to add."

I paused. "Well this is awkward."

"You didn't detonate the bomb!" he accused.

"No no! I did. It blew up and it was on Ra's ship when it did. So it did kill him and eliminate the risk to Earth," I started.

"However…" Samuels said.

"However…" I growled at him before pausing. "The ship might've been 1000 kilometres above the planet. Neither the gate, nor anything else on the planet was destroyed. Daniel Jackson is alive and living with the people on Abydos. If he's kept out of trouble," I muttered the last part.

"You violated direct orders. Why?" Hammond asked.

"Because I wasn't going to murder thousands of innocent people who were used and abused by Ra. He was gone, so they could just live out their lives peacefully. The Abydonians are no threat to us. So, in actual fact, I didn't violate my orders," I replied. "They deserve to be left alone."

"That's not up to you…" he replied, but he didn't look very sure.

"If I had come back here and reported the gate on the other side was still intact, West would've sent another bomb, just like you were about to now. And 10,000 innocent people would've been slaughtered. I'm sorry General, but I'm not a murderer," I replied seriously. "The threat from Ra was gone." I could see that I was getting through to him, but he didn't like it.

"What about the probe we sent through? It was crushed instantly." Samuels asked.

"I told Daniel to bury their gate as soon as we left. Making my return, or anybody else's impossible," I replied.

"Those four bodies lying in the infirmary say otherwise," Hammond said. I didn't say anything in return.

"Take Commander Kitsuné to the holding room. Give him a little time to think about things while I decide what to do with him," the General ordered.

* * *

I was shoved through a door into a dimly lit room. I saw movement before Kawalsky stood at attention in front of me. "Commander Kitsuné, sir."

"C'mon Kawalsky, we're old friends," I replied as I stuck out my hand. He looked at it before he grinned and shook it. "Me, Brown and Ferretti didn't tell them anything," he assured me.

"Nice going," I smiled in return.

"Hey, those kids on Abydos saved our lives too," Brown said as he walked over. I shook his hand as well.

"Yeah," I nodded as I sat down on a single bed that wasn't a bunk.

"I mean, they're the whole reason we kept it secret," Kawalsky added. "Right?" I nodded. "That one kid idolized you. Remember him?"

"Skaara," I murmured, wondering how he was doing.

"Remember how he was always saluting you?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was cute. In a way that a dog is cute when he does the puppy eyes," I shook my head.

At that point the door opened and the General walked in. Kawalski and Brown quickly stood at attention but I took my time getting up.

"That was quick," I said. "So what's it going to be?"

"How many did you say were on Abydos?" he asked, looking troubled.

"Roughly 10,000," I replied.

The General hesitated. "Does this mean you're reconsidering sending the bomb, sir?" I asked.

"What? Another bomb?" Kawalsky said.

"Yep. Another one," I replied.

"It means I'm open to suggestions," he replied.

"Well that's easy. We confirm that Daniel is still alive on Abydos and that their Stargate is unburied, then me, Kawalsky, Brown and Ferretti go through to ask what's been happening on his end," I replied.

"Very well. I'll have the prototype probe shipped from MIT," the General replied, looking relieved.

"I can save you a bunch of money on that," I said as I looked around and spotted what I was looking for. A box of tissues. "Something only Daniel would understand."

* * *

Back in the gate room, we waited in the control room as the stargate started dialling up Abydos. I smiled as I watched the gate spin. I had missed this feeling of adventure.

"**Aren't you glad I convinced you to help me?"** Amy asked.

'I would have to be the dumbest dumb person in my universe to turn down your offer after you confirmed that you were an Ancient,' I replied with a mental smile.

"Care to explain this concept?" the General asked.

"And ruin the surprise?" I replied on mock shock. However his face said that he wasn't in the mood. "I'm just messing with you. Daniel has allergies to traveling. How he does is probably one of man's greatest mysteries. I witnessed this in our mission to Abydos. He'll know the message came from me and not from someone like..." I paused and looked at Samuels. "You."

"Why not just send a note?" Samuels asked.

"Anyone can send a note," both Kawalsky, Brown and I replied together.

"Chevron six encoded!" Walter called out.

"Well, time to send this badboy off," I said as I left the control room. I entered in time for the activation vortex, which was always awesome to see. I noted that this activation was a lot more stable than the last time we were off to Abydos. No reverse whirlpool. I casually walked up to the gate and paused as I soaked up the feeling of being close to the Stargate. I then blinked and tossed the box through with little ceremony and waited for the Stargate to deactivate before walking back up to the control room.

"Now what?" the General asked.

"Now we wait," I replied. "If Daniel is still around, he'll get the message."

"What if the aliens got it?" Samuels asked.

"Seriously? How the hell did you get promoted?" I asked incredulously. "It's a box of tissues. All they're going to do is blow their noses. That, or blow the box to ashes."

"They could be planning an attack!" he replied strongly.

"Yes, and we've just told them of our secret plan to give them all runny noses!" I replied, sarcastically dramatic. I sighed. "General, this could take some time. So, do you think you could direct me to the cafeteria? I'm starving!"

* * *

An hour later I was snacking on some cold chicken in the debriefing room when the sound of the gate revving up hit my ears, along with intense vibrations. I stuffed the last piece of meat into my mouth and made my way down to the gateroom. As myself, Hammond, Samuels, Kawalsky and Brown arrived in front of the gate, an object was spat out of the wormhole and the gate deactivated.

I walked up to the object and picked it up. All the tissues were gone and the box was covered in frost. I wiped some of it away and grinned as I saw the message, 'THANKS SEND MORE' on the side.

"There you go," I grinned as I tossed the box to Samuels, who showed the message to the General.

"Permission to take my team through the Stargate to Abydos, sir," I asked.

"Assuming I get the President's authorisation, the mission briefing will be at 0800 hours," Hammond replied. "Consider yourself reinstated, Commander."

* * *

The next morning saw me yawning at the debriefing table, serving myself a mug of coffee. I was dressed in my blues, which wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I was thankful to Amy for doing my tie, as I had no idea how to work with the damn thing.

The General entered and ordered us to have a seat, which I already had. But he didn't seem to mind about this. Kawalsky, Brown, Ferretti and a few others sat down. But there was a spare seat opposite to me.

"Where's Captain Carter?" Hammond asked.

"Just arriving, sir," one of the other guys reported.

"Carter?" I asked.

"I'm assigning Sam Carter to this mission," the General stated.

"Okie-dokie," I nodded. "So what's Sam do?"

"Sam is our expert on the Stargate," he replied.

"So where's he transferring from?" I asked.

"She is transferring from the Pentagon," a feminine and, to me, familiar voice sounded. I looked up to see a short haired blonde woman walk out of the shadows and into the light to stand beside the empty chair. "I take it you're Commander Kitsuné." She then straightened into a crisp salute. "Captain Samantha Carter reporting, sir."

I was neutral outwardly, but inside I was like a fanboy. 'Oh yeah! It's Sam!' I thought gleefully. I returned the salute a little more casually.

"But of course you go by Sam," Kawalsky noted, clearly expecting a guy and not a hot blonde. I looked over to see Sam barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"Let's get started," the General began. "Commander?"

"I guess I'm up," I sighed before standing up as Sam sat down. "For the newbies taking your first trip through the gate, let me tell you what to expect," I said to her and the other two guys who would be joining us.

"Well, I've practically memorized your report from the first mission, sir," she replied.

"Memorized, you say?" I blinked. "…What did I do after walking through the gate?"

"You helped the other members of your squad get their bearings straight as they walked through the Stargate," she replied without hesitation.

"Huh… what did the meat on that lizard like alien taste like?"

"Chicken."

"Who was the original overseer of Project Giza?"

"Catherine Langford."

"Who was the kid I talked to the most?"

"Skaara."

"What was the joke I said when experiencing the language for the first time?"

"You joked that you had stumbled across the rare Neko tribe, which is Japanese for cat."

"Bloody hell, you really did memorize the report! Damn…" I finished up, eyes wide.

"Uhh, I think we're getting a little off topic here," the General coughed, though I saw the hints of a smile on his face.

"Right, sorry sir," I replied with a sheepish grin.

"I'd like to think I've been preparing for this all my life," Sam added.

"I think what the Commander is saying is, have you ever pulled out of a simulated bombing run in an F-16 at eight-plus Gs?" Kawalsky said.

"That wasn't what I was trying to say," I murmured softly.

"Yes," she replied instantly. I could tell Brown was impressed. I looked at Kawalsky and grinned at him.

"Well…, it's way worse than that," Kawalsky added, clearly trying to look tough.

"By the time you get to the other side, you're frozen stiff, like you've just been through a blizzard," Ferretti added.

I started cackling loudly as I turned to my pals. "Stop bullshitting already you two," I laughed. I then turned to Sam. "Sorry, these two are just trying to scare you. But the part about freezing your ass off is true."

"That's the result of the compression your molecules undergo during the millisecond required for reconstruction," she replied coolly.

"Oh great, another scientist," Kawalsky sighed, seemingly determined to get one up over her.

"Theoretical Astrophysicist," she replied.

"Which means?" he asked.

"It means that her IQ is higher than all the guys in here combined. Most likely," I stepped in, with a wink to Sam, which she caught.

"It's not about being a woman. I like the ladies," Kawalsky said this part with a big grin. "It's just the last scientist we sortied with hit the wall 7 times out of 10 when trying to shoot an enemy. So I just have a little problem with a scientist on the team."

"Well, Lieutenant, I logged over 100 hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. That tough enough for you? Or are we gonna have to arm wrestle?" she challenged.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!..." I began to chant, but broke off when everyone was staring at me. "What? I know I'm not the only one thinking it." I then turned to Sam and whispered loudly, "Just so you know I was rooting for you." She smiled in return.

"Ahem! I don't mean to throw a damper on your enthusiasm, but I still say the safest and most logical way is to bury the stargate, just like the Egyptians did, and make it impossible for the aliens to return," Samuels said. "It's the only way to eliminate the threat."

"But that won't work," I spoke up.

"It worked before," the General noted.

"Ra had a huge honking spaceship the size of the Giza Pyramid. They don't need the stargate to get here. They can do it the old-fashioned way. Using the stargate is just quicker, but you can't fit the Giza Pyramid through the Stargate," I replied. "No offence to Major Glass-Is-Half-Empty, but maybe we should use the stargate to do a little info gathering before they decide to show up on our front lawn instead of our back door like last time?"

There was silence as the General thought about it. More than once he looked at me, but I just smiled reassuringly.

"I'll give you exactly 24 hours to either return or send a message though. No Kleenex boxes, please," Hammond ordered.

"A radio transmission should be able to get through, sir," I offered.

"That will do. Otherwise, I will assume the worst, and send a bomb through," he finished.

"Understood," I replied, not bothering to keep the smile off my face.

* * *

The Stargate was active and we were ready. I and my team walked into the gateroom with the General out in front. Since my guns were still at home, and I didn't want to explain how I suddenly got them if I summoned them to me, I was armed with an M9 pistol and an MP5 submachine gun.

"Try to follow orders this time, Commander," Hammond asked.

"Sir?"

"This time you bring Daniel Jackson back. Is that clear?" he ordered.

"Dunno how much his wife will like that, but yes sir," I replied. I then turned to my team. "Alright get going!" I ordered and Kawalsky, Brown and Ferretti walked up the ramp and through the Stargate. I motioned for Sam to go first and she hesitated before doing so, me following close behind.

We stopped at the front of the event horizon. "My God! Look at this!" Sam said in awe. "You can actually see the fluctuations in the event horizon."

I sighed. "Just get in already!" I said before shoving her through. I shook my head before following after her.

On the other side I blinked as I looked around to see ourselves back in the gateroom of the temple.

"Ahh… it's good to be back," I sighed before the feeling of my cheeks and nose freezing off hit me and I quickly rubbed my face to get warmth back into them. "They seriously need to fix that calibration issue!" I grumbled to myself.

After ridding myself of the coldness on my face, I shrugged off my backpack and propped it up against the outer edge of the gate. I walked down a few steps and looked at Samantha, who looked to be in slight shock from the travel. "Simulated isn't the same as the real thing, isn't it?" I asked her. She just looked up at me, still trying to cope with the aftereffects. "Well, get your bearings back," I added, patting her on the back before taking a more closer look of the room.

There was a campfire in the middle with an odd assortment of pots, pans and food. The place looked like it had only been abandoned a few minutes ago. The soldiers that had recovered began to fan out, along with me. We didn't get very far before we found ourselves surrounded by kids loaded with guns, that were pointed at our faces.

"Uhhh, hello?" I asked before a familiar voice spoke Abydonian. "Lower your guns," the voice said.

I turned around and did so, a big grin forming on my face. "Daniel!" I said.

"Hello Josh. Welcome back," he replied, looking confused.

I walked forward and embraced him in a hug. "You obviously got my package," I asked.

"Yeah, thanks for that," he replied as we parted. I then looked past him and saw another familiar face. "Skaara!" I called and walked over to the kid who had bonded with me on my previous trip to this planet.

He saluted me and did so back. I then laughed and drew the kid into a tight hug. "Hey Skaara!"

"Kitune!" he replied, not quite getting my last name right, but I didn't care. We parted, both grinning. "I did not think to be seeing you again," he replied in fragmented English, but considering Daniel had probably taught him only every now and then over the last year, it was pretty well done.

"Yeah, well. I was in the neighbourhood," I replied. I then turned to Daniel. "So how ya been" I asked.

"Good. You?" he asked.

"I've been ok. Missed all of ya," I replied.

"Greetings from Earth, Dr. Jackson," Ferretti said.

"Hey Ferretti," Daniel replied with a smile.

"Brought you a little something, Daniel," Kawalsky said as he handed the archaeologist a travel pack of tissues.

"Kawalsky," Daniel replied as he took the packet.

"How's life been treating you?" Brown asked as he shook his hand.

"Not as bad as you might think," he replied. He then looked to the side and smiled. "Sha're, don't be shy," he beckoned with his hand. I turned to see the woman Daniel had fallen for peep out from behind a curtain that belonged to a small tent. She looked the same as she did from before. No, she looked even younger than before. Her hair was longer too.

'I guess being free has done wonders to her,' I thought.

"**I'll say,"** Amy agreed.

Sha're walked over and stood by Daniel's side. "Good to see you again," I greeted with a gentle smile and put my hand forward, who took it and I shook her hand softly. She smiled at me.

"So I figured it was only a matter of time before you had to tell the truth about us still being here," Daniel said.

"Well it was either that or eating a nuke for breakfast. I dunno about you, but I prefer bacon and eggs," I replied. "So why the militia? Something else come through?"

"No, we're just taking precautions. Why?" he asked. I was just about to explain when a female interruption happened.

"Amazing," Sam said and our attention turned to the blonde scientist. "This is what was missing from the dig at Giza. Ha! This is how they controlled it! It took us 15 years and three supercomputers to jury-rig a control system for the gate on Earth!"

"Sam?"

"Look how small it is!"

"Sam! Stop nerd fan-girling over the device and come and introduce yourself!" I yelled.

"Oh! Sorry, sir!" she walked quickly over to us. I caught Sha're's look and I could see she wasn't pleased about something. Maybe it was because she could see Sam was a beautiful woman and thought that there would be some competition for Daniel. "Uhh… Dr. Jackson, I presume." She stuck out her hand and Daniel shook it. "I'm Dr. Samantha Carter."

"Hi…" he replied, but now he looked even more confused. He then looked at me. "What's going on, Josh?"

"Well, six angry aliens came through the stargate on Earth. There was a squad in the gateroom at the time. Four are dead and one was taken," I replied.

"One of them looked like Ra, Daniel," Kawalsky added.

"Now we don't know that," I replied. "We all saw Ra in that fancy get-up, right? This one had a snake helmet on. So did the others that came through."

"Well, whoever they are, they didn't come from here," Daniel reported. "I mean, the boys take shifts guarding it, 36 hours a day, every day. We'd know if they came through here."

"Well, they came from somewhere, Danny. I'm gonna have to look around," I replied.

Daniel paused. "I think I can help you find out who it was, but it's going to have to wait until the sandstorm is over."

"Again?" I asked.

"Yeah. We were about to have our evening meal. Why don't you join us?" he invited.

"Food sounds great," I grinned.

As we sat round the campfire, I noticed the shiny pan with the words 'PROPERTY OF U.S.A.F' stamped on the edge.

"I'm sure the eggheads at MIT would be happy to learn that their million-dollar probe is now a million-dollar frying pan," I grinned as I chomped down on a piece of seasoned bread that was delicious.

"Well, it got pretty banged up when it came through the gate into our barricade, so we made use, and…" he paused as Sha're handed him some of the food she had made herself. "Well it is non-stick titanium, so…" he then dug into the food. "Mmm! Very good. Perfect," he praised. "Beenaa wa! Everybody try this!" he offered and began passing it around.

"This too," Skaara said as he passed a beaker of some type of liquid to me.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Drink," he replied. I took the beaker and sniffed it. The smell of strong alcohol hit me. I already knew what it was, but I was confident I was man enough to have some. But I had never tasted unaged whisky before as I wasn't a big drinker at all, so I decided that a small sip would be safe. I did so and felt the immediate burn of alcohol as it slid down my throat. It was strong as hell! I felt the urge to cough and my eyes bulged out. But I refused to choke as I placed the beaker down. "Hooo daddy ohhh! That's a right kick in the guts!" I said in a very hoarse voice before coughing a bit. Everyone then laughed at my voice.

"It's not funny!" I replied, my voice unchanged. "Wow!" I mouthed as I passed the beaker to Sam.

"Kitune," Skaara then said solemnly and he passed the CD player I gave him from before.

I shook my head. "No, it's yours. I gave that to you to keep. Remember?"

He hesitated before smiling. "Thank you," he replied. "But it no longer works."

"I had a feeling that was the case. So!" I then reached over to my pack which was behind me and pulled out a new CD stereo, already loaded with D batteries. "I brought you this!" I then set it on the ground, turned it on and pressed play. The song Jurua by Geoff Knorr and Michael Curran from Civilization V Soundtrack played out loud enough for all to hear and the chattering died down as the music reached everyone's ears.

We all listened to the song all the way through and my smile widened as I saw several of the Abydonians dance as they listened to the song. Then when the song finished I turned the stereo off and handed it to Skaara, who took it with a big smile. He then disappeared into the crowd. Most likely to put it somewhere safe.

I had gone and bought that after I had gotten conformation that we were coming here. I made sure that the stereo was for outdoor use so things like dirt and sand didn't bother it much. I then made a new CD for Skaara before packing it in my bag.

"You know, he's never had that small CD player out of his sight the whole time you were gone," Daniel said.

"Well that's nice," I smiled.

"So this man who looked like Ra, he must've come through another gate," Daniel said.

"Yeah, that's what I've been thinking. No way that these are the only two gates around," I agreed.

"But the stargate only goes here," Sam said.

"Oh come on Sam. Thirty nine symbols crossed with a seven symbol address? Do you know how many combinations that is? If this was the only other gate in existence then why have the spinning and the 7 symbol address? For that matter, why have the symbols on there at all," I replied.

"Yeah, Josh is right," Daniel confirmed.

"I know that but we ran hundreds of permutations," Sam said.

"But you didn't have what you need," Daniel replied.

"Daniel, the storm has passed," Skaara reported.

"Well then, I'll show you," Daniel said as he stood up. "Sha're, ben qua ri Josh and his friends to see the vili tao an," he said to his wife. She then stood up but Daniel assured her that we wouldn't be long. He went to kiss her forehead but she pulled him in for a passionate make out session. I instantly grinned widely as I watched. All the guys began catcalling as they continued. Daniel looked at me as she continued sucking his face off. She then drew off with a few extra tender kisses. "Goodbye, my Daniel," she said softly. Poor Daniel was too dazed to do anything for a few moments before he snapped out of it and said goodbye himself, still with a dazed look in his eyes.

I then stood up with Sam and Kawalski doing the same. Several of the kids also joined us. Brown and Ferretti stayed behind as well as the two new guys, Currin and Swope. As soon as we walked out of the main room I wrapped my arm around Daniel's neck and said, "Who's a dog? You're a dog! Howl with me! Arooooo! Aro, aro, aro, aroooooo!" I continued to howl a few more times before he reluctantly joined in with a small smile on his face, Kawalsky laughing.

I released Daniel enough for him to clip the sun lenses onto his glasses. I too, placed a pair of black sunglasses onto my face. We exited the temple and were faced with the unchanging Abydonian desert.

"I can't say I missed this place," Kawalsky muttered.

"This way," Daniel said and pressed forward with the rest of us following.

"This is incredible!" Sam said in awe.

"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet," Daniel replied.

After an hour of walking through the desert we came across another temple like the one we have come from. But there was no pyramid. Once inside Daniel led the way.

"So I figured that there had to be more to this place, so I started exploring. Just the area around the pyramid and the town at first. Then, after about a month, I found this place," Daniel replied. "Doctor, you're gonna love this." He then began lighting torches to brighten up the darkness.

We had entered a large hall-like room with Horus statues lining the walls. At one end was a giant Ra symbol in gold. And covering the walls in between the statues, were hieroglyphs. "This is the archaeological find of the century," Sam said as she looked around her. "There must be-"

"Thousands of lines of hieroglyphs," Daniel finished for her.

"Have you translated any of this yet?" I asked.

"I think so," he replied.

"What's it say?"

"Uhh, well it doesn't say anything. Actually, it's sort of a chart, more of a map," he explained.

"Map, huh," I repeated, pretending to think it over. "You're saying that all of this," I gestured around me, "is many different gate addresses?"

"That's what I thought. But I haven't been able to study it all. I mean, look at it. It would take my whole life," he replied as he looked around.

"We don't that that kind of time," I said. "Is there at least a reference of what one is looking at on any one point?"

"No, there isn't. It's just a list of gate addresses and that's it," he replied. "But this proves that there are many more stargates! A whole network of them! Stargates that are all over this galaxy!"

"I don't think that can be, Doctor," Sam said.

"And why is that? Seems pretty spot on to me," I said.

"Well, because after Commander Kitsuné and his team came back, my team ran hundreds of symbol permutations, using Earth as the point of origin, and it never worked," she explained.

"Then where did your Ra lookalike come from?" he asked.

"Mind if I try something out here?" I asked Sam and Daniel. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"Ok, I don't pretend to know as much about the universe as Sam does, but I know that the universe is in constant motion. Without a computer to calculate stellar drift, our Stargate is probably trying to access a point in space that is just empty space. The Stargate has been offline and disconnected for 5,000 years, and while that may not be very long in the galactic timescale, the shift in space is still considerable. That's why you've never gotten another hit, Sam," I explained.

"But what about Abydos then?" she asked.

"It must be the closest one in the network to us that the shift is within a certain buffer the gate has. What do you want to bet that the device in the gateroom does more than simply dial up the gate. What if the gate itself is disconnected from the network when it's offline. But when someone dials it up, it connects to the network and is updated the new information on the other gate's positions," I finished up. I then looked around to see Daniel, Sam and Kawalsky in total surprise at me.

"What? I'm smart too, ya know!" I said.

"I… I think you're right, sir," Sam said, and I could see the new found respect she had for me in her voice.

"Now all you have to do is program the computers back home with the new coordinates and calculate the drift so we can go to other places," I said. She nodded, already looking excited at the challenge laid out at her feet.

"Great. Start recording this place so we can get it on the computers and get started," I said. But she was already ahead of me, recording everything on the digital camera she brought with her.

* * *

We were talking excitedly as we got back to the gate room, but immediately our happy mood was shattered when we saw the state of the place.

"Sha're!" Daniel cried out as he began to search for her.

'Oh no! I was having too much of a good time that I forgot that bastard Apophis was coming!' I thought.

"**It had to happen,"** Amy said sadly.

'But I could've had Sha're join us or Skaara or something!' I replied.

"**That would've changed the timeline completely. This is a major milestone in the timeline. I'm sorry,"** she said.

I sighed mentally. 'I guess you're right. I should've known that there were going to be things like this that I couldn't change as much as I wanted to.' I then turned and saw Ferretti propped up against a pillar. I moved to his side as Sam moved to the other side of him.

"I wonder if he saw the incoming address," Sam said as she got his flak jacket open. There was a staff wound in his left shoulder, meaning that his wound wasn't as serious as we thought. But if he didn't get back to Earth soon, he would bleed out. Kawalsky relieved me so I moved over to where Daniel was. I saw that the two new guys that stayed behind were dead.

"Ra is dead!" Daniel said strongly.

"No… Ra, I saw… He took Sha're," one of the boys who was wounded said. "He took Skaara into the chaapa'ai."

I moved over to where Brown was. He was wounded too. "What's this mean, Daniel?" I heard Kawalsky ask. "Could there be another Ra?"

"How in the hell should I know?" Daniel laughed, but it was a hopeless laugh. "I should've left the barricade up. This is my fault."

"Sir! Ferretti and Brown need medical attention, now!" Sam called urgently.

"Go! Help them. I can send you back," Daniel called back.

"You're coming with us, Daniel," I said. "I've got orders this time."

"I don't care about your orders, Commander. My wife is out there. So is Skaara," he replied.

"I know that. But there's a very good chance that either Ferretti or Brown saw the incoming gate address and then we can go and rescue them! Don't you want to be there for that?" I asked.

"I've got everything I need," Sam said as she showed the camera. I nodded at her before looking back at Daniel. He slowly looked around before he beckoned everyone over. As soon as the remaining Abydonians had clustered around him, he started speaking to them.

"After we go through the chaapa'ai, you have to bury it like we did before, and then leave this place," he said.

"You come back?" one of the kids asked.

"No. No, I can't. Nobody can. That's what I'm telling you. Not for a long time. Now as soon as we're gone, I want you to close it. Bury it. Put a big heavy cover stone over it. Nothing good can ever come through this gate." I could see that it was hurting him a lot to say these things. "Do you understand?"

"You came through it, Daniel," the same kid replied.

Daniel paused. "Do you remember the story I told you? How the ancient Egyptians back on Earth cut themselves off from Ra? Well that is exactly what you have to do. Then in one year, one year from this day, you take the cover stone away." At this point tears were streaming down his face. "I will try to bring Sha're and Skaara home with me on that day. But if I don't make it back, it I don't… If I don't return, then you must bury the gate again forever, joa qua?"

There was silence.

"Promise me!"

There was unanimous agreement.

"We promise, Daniel," the kid replied. He was holding up a lot better than Daniel.

"You tell Sha're's father, in one year…" Daniel finished up. It seemed that here was the kid's breaking point and Daniel wrapped him up in his arms tightly, the other Abydonians joining in, letting Daniel know that he wasn't grieving alone.

He then slowly pulled away and stood in front of the DHD. He dialled in the Earth gate address and activated the stargate. In turn I grabbed Brown while Kawalski grabbed Ferretti. Daniel and Sam grabbed the other two dead guys. We dragged them through the gate and partially down the ramp. As soon as we all were through…

"Close the iris! Close the iris!"

A metal shielding slid out from inside the stargate and sealed the wormhole off. The wormhole deactivated and the iris opened back up and slit into its new home inside the stargate.

I turned around to see Hammond and Samuels walk over to us. "Sweet shield there," I said.

"It's our insurance against any more surprises," the General replied. He then looked at the two wounded soldiers who were being loaded onto stretchers. "What happened, Commander?"

"The gateroom on their side got hit while we were doing a little poking around, sir. Ferretti and Brown are hurt. Currin and Swop are dead," I reported.

"Same hostiles who attacked us?" he asked.

"It's a safe bet. Daniel's wife and one of our kids were kidnapped in the process," I confirmed.

"General, hi. I'm Daniel Jackson. We've never met. Um, I'd like to be on the team that goes after them," Daniel rattled out in his usual fast paced talk.

"You're not in any position to make demands, Jackson," the general almost growled at him before he moved over to where the wounded were being prepped for transport.

"Leave this up to me, Daniel," I said as we watched.


	10. B1: Chapter 2: Rescue and Recruitment

**Chapter 2: Rescue and Recruitment**

"Ferretti might have seen the gate address before they left. That should tell us where they went." Sam paused in her debrief. "General, Dr. Jackson found an entire cartouche on Abydos with 1,000 possible coordinates, maybe more. That's 1,000 new worlds, General."

"And our stargate can take us to these worlds?" Hammond asked.

"With this new data, as long as we can make the appropriate allowances for alignment in the targeting computer-"

"Yes or no?"

She paused. "I think so, sir. Yes. Requesting permission to upload the symbols into the base supercomputer for analysis."

"And, with your permission sir, I'd like to lead the rescue mission once we find out where these bad guys are," I added.

"We'll discuss that request in a briefing at 0800 hours," the General said as he stood up, with the three of us standing as well and moving over to him. "Captain Carter, the base computer is at your disposal. In the meantime, get this man some clean clothing. He stinks." He then left into his office. Sam left and I clapped him softly on the shoulder. "Don't worry," I said softly before I left as well.

* * *

Two hours later I was washed and ready to leave. I popped my head in to see Kawalsky on the verge of going to sleep at Ferretti and Brown's side.

"The doc says he's gonna be fine," I said.

Kawalsky shifted in his seat and turned to me. "Yes, sir."

"You gonna keep the vigil all night?" I asked.

"Yes, sir," he nodded, holding up his cup of coffee.

I left and took the lift up to the halfway point. I was pulling on my leather jacket and about to enter the second lift which would take me to the top, when I saw Daniel standing in the hallway, looking like a lost puppy. I walked over.

"Hey," I said, catching his attention. He was now clothed in a black t-shirt and dark olive green loose pants and shirt. "They don't know what to do with me," he said with a sad smile. "And I don't know what to do with myself."

"Well, you can bunk with me for now. Come on," I said before walking to the lift. I stopped and looked behind me to see him tentatively following. "Come on! Let's go. I'll cook you dinner," I said.

* * *

Back at my place I was putting the finishing touches on my omelette. 'Woah… déjà vu,' I thought. "It'll be done soon," I called as I flipped the eggs, bacon, veggie, pepper, salt and garlic mix over.

'Hey Amy?'

"**Yes?"**

'I've been thinking. Would it be alright to tell Daniel who I am and all the rest as well as who you are? I don't tell him anything about the future. He just looks so sad, I want to cheer him up by telling him that he will see her again,' I asked.

There was a moment of silence. **"I suppose so, as long as no specifics are said about the future,"** she conditioned.

'Really? Can I tell Sam, Teal'c and a few others as well at later points?'

"**Very well, you can. But the same restrictions apply,"** she agreed.

I smiled before I split the omelette three ways and slid the three portions onto three plates. I then doled out some of the leftover spag bog from a couple of nights ago, quickly washed up and took the plates into the living room. I was in time to see Daniel sneeze into a hanky.

"Almost missed that one," I joked.

"Yeah," he replied as I handed him one of the plates. I then set the second plate down next to me on the couch.

"What's the third plate for?" Daniel asked.

"You might want to sit down for this," I suggested.

"What's going on?" he asked as he sat.

"What I'm about to tell you is very important, and very secret. You'll be the first person I've told this to," I began. "I'm not actually from this universe. I'm from a parallel one, where the stargate is just a story told on TV." I looked at him. "Naturally you're thinking I'm crazy, right?"

"Oh, no. Not crazy at all," he replied sarcastically. I just chuckled at him before pulling out my iPhone 3GS. "You know what this is?" I asked.

He peered at it. "Can't say I do," he replied.

"This is an iPhone 3GS. It's a mobile phone that won't be released until 2009. Apple makes them," I explained.

"Macintosh?" he asked.

"That's right. Those guys become the most used computers second only to Microsoft." I pointed the screen at him and turned it on, using my fingertips to navigate the cracked screen. "Back where I lived, this was considered an old model as the iPhone 5 had been released just before I came here." I then turned it off. "Believe me now?"

"Well, I'll admit that tech like that shouldn't even exist now. It looks too advanced. So, let's say I believe you," he said carefully.

"Right. Well, as I was saying, in the Earth that I'm from, a TV series had been made of the Stargate. You were in it, as was Sam, General Hammond and one other, but I'll get to that in a minute. As a result, I know most, if not all of the major, and a few of the minor, events that happen in the next 10 years. Naturally I can't tell you any of them, otherwise the future will change and then things will get worse, a lot worse."

"So, how did you get here?" Daniel asked.

"Not how, but why, actually. Before I came here, there was a man here who committed suicide. If he had not done this, he would have gone on to lead the team through the stargate and eventually blow Ra up. Now he was on constant watch by… let's call them guardian angels for now, and as soon as he died, they made preparations to get someone to fill his place. She found me as I was cooking dinner, explained the situation, and basically recruited me on the spot."

"She?"

"Oh, that's right. Amy?" I said into thin air. There was a moment before a glowing white nimbus appeared in the middle of the room and morphed into a white haired woman with blue eyes.

"This is the… guardian angel who moved me from my Earth to this one to replace the dead guy. For without that pivotal person, Earth is doomed," I said. "Daniel, meet Amaterasu. You'll recognise the name, I'm sure."

"_The_ Amaterasu? Shinto Sun Goddess?" he asked in awe.

"That's right, but just call me Amy," she said as she sat down next to me and started eating dinner. "You might want to eat that before it gets cold," she suggested.

Daniel blinked before he picked up his own dinner and began eating. He blinked. "Wow… this is really good," he said.

"Thanks," I replied. "So anyway, she transported me here to take the guy's place. And to make sure everything goes as it should. For the most part. I'm allowed to make small changes as long as it doesn't change the overall timeline."

"Like what?" Daniel asked.

"For example, remember when I saved Sha're from getting an energy blast in the chest? It was right before the rebellion happened and we blew up Ra," I asked.

"Yeah, I remember. I never did thank you for that," he replied.

"Well in the original timeline she would've taken that hit and be on the verge of dying. Then you would've ringed aboard Ra's ship, taken her to the sarcophagus and healed her. Then you would've run into Ra and he would have started to fry your brains out with that hand thingy, but you would've escaped, taking the pendant with you. I just saved you from doing all that, is all."

"…wow, really?"

"Yep."

"So then, why didn't you tell me that Sha're and Skaara were going to be captured?" he asked, anger beginning to rise up.

I sighed. "Well, there are two reasons to that. The first was that I was having so much fun with all of you that I forgot until we got back to the gate room. And the second is because it needed to happen. It was one of those 'happen at all cost' things. There was nothing I could do…"

Daniel was silent as he looked down at his half eaten food. "But I can tell you that you will see her again," I added. Here he looked up at me, and I saw the anger leaving his eyes.

"Really?"

I nodded. "Yes. You will. I can't say when. You know, cause of the timeline. But believe me when I say that you will see her again."

Daniel was silent once again before he nodded. "Ok, I believe you. But can't you tell me anything else?"

"I think I can tell you about this new aggressor and his part in the galaxy," I said as I looked sideways at Amy, who nodded.

"So was it really Ra?" he asked.

"No, we blew Ra to smithereens," I said and saw Daniel sigh in relief. "However he's Ra's brother."

"You mean Apophis? Really?"

"First you need to know a little backstory about who Ra really was. He was, actually, a small snake like alien that can bury itself into someone and, for all intents and purposes, possess them. They can only live in water, or when they control someone. They're a parasite."

"You said they. So there's more than two?"

"There's a whole race of them. They're known as the Goa'uld. Currently there are a dozen or so high ranking Goa'uld known as the System Lords, though most of the time, the Goa'uld Empire acts like the Sengoku Period of Japan, with the many Lords constantly warring with each other, always trying to rise to the top. Up until a year ago, Ra was the Supreme System Lord. Then we blew his ass up. And now the System Lords are starting to fight amongst themselves again, Ra's brother among them. As you've guessed, his name is Apophis, and you can more or less tell who he is by his golden armour," I explained.

"My god… How many of the Egyptian gods were actually aliens?" he gasped.

"It's not just Egyptian gods, but Greek, Japanese, Celtic and a few others," I replied. "Anyways, I'm gonna change the subject now. What happened to you guys after we left?"

Daniel blinked at the sudden change of pace. "Uhh… well, as soon as you were gone and they realized they were free, I mean, Abydos was their world for the taking," he said.

"Had a fun party?" I asked.

"Yeah. Big, big party. They treated me like their saviour. It was… embarrassing," he replied.

"Oh I bet you loved it," I grinned. "I mean 'Saviour of Abydos' is a nice title."

"I spent most of the past year having to stop everyone I saw from bowing all the time," he muttered.

"Could've been worse. All the ladies could've lined up for you. Poor Sha're would have to beat them off with a long stick," I grinned.

"There was a bit of that, just without the stick," he laughed a bit. "If it wasn't for her, I probably…" he paused.

"It'll help, talking about her," I said.

Daniel nodded. "She was the complete opposite of everyone else. She practically fell on the floor laughing every time I tried to do some chore they all took for granted. Like uh… grinding yaphetta flour. I mean, have you ever tried to grind your own flower?"

"It's not on my bucket list, that's for sure. But then again, neither was being transported to the universe of my all-time favourite TV show," I said.

Daniel laughed. I then yawned. "I think I'm gonna get some sleep now. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

"We do?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah. We're going to go save Sha're and Skaara," I replied.

"Do we actually do that?" he asked.

"You know I can't answer that. Just know that we are going, which is better than not knowing if we were going or not, right?" I asked. Daniel paused before he nodded.

"I'll show him to the guest bedroom," Amy offered.

"Alright. I'm gonna wash up here before crashing for the night," I replied as Amy and Daniel left the room.

-] Third POV [-

Amy led Daniel down the hallway to the spare bedroom. "Here you go. Get a good night's sleep," she said.

"Thanks," Daniel replied as he moved past her to head into the room.

"Daniel?" Amy asked and he turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"If you're looking to hate someone, hate me. Josh is not at fault. I'm the one who didn't help Sha're or Skaara. It's my fault," she said sadly.

Daniel was silent for a moment. "I'm not going to pretend to fully understand what's going on here with you or him, but I don't hate him, or you," he said with a shy smile Amy looked up in slight surprise. He just continued to smile. "Well, goodnight," he said before he closed the door.

Amy stood there for a moment longer before she smiled herself. "Thanks," she whispered before she walked back to the kitchen.

* * *

The next morning we all readied ourselves for the briefing. "People, what is spoken of in this room is classified as SCI, top secret," General Hammond began. "Commander, what do we know about these hostiles we didn't yesterday?"

"Not much at all. The Abydonian boys who survived the attack on the camp thought it was Ra," I began. "But Daniel and I had a chat last night and we think that it's a good bet it's not."

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

"Well Ra's warriors all had Horus helmets on. They were all the same. The people that attacked the base, and then on Abydos, were wearing serpent helmets. So it's more likely we're dealing with someone new here," Daniel explained. "Ra played the Sun god of Egypt. He borrowed the religion and culture of the ancient Egyptians and he used it to enslave the Abydonians."

"If you think about it, Ra seems to have lived for thousands of years. Most likely he invented the Egyptian pantheon and religion," I added.

"Ra wanted the people of Abydos to believe that he was the only god," Daniel said.

"So you and the Commander are saying that, Ra's not the last of his race after all?" Sam asked.

"Maybe he's got a brother, Ray?" Kawalsky joked.

"You have no idea," I murmured very quietly.

"The legend goes that Ra's race was dying. He survived by taking over the body of his human host, an Egyptian boy. But who's to say more of his kind couldn't do the same thing?" Daniel asked. "I mean, this could have happened at anytime, anywhere there's a gate. I mean, this could be happening right now."

"Commander, you've had the most experience in fighting this hostile. Assuming you have to defend yourself in the field, are you up to it?" the General asked.

"Hell yes, we'll whoop ET's ass, sir," I grinned, earning a few laughs from most the room. "AP bullets coupled with MP5s seem to do the trick. 9mm rounds are crap at long range so they're good for close range."

"Very well, Captain Carter, you're confident that the stargate will take us where we want to go with this new information?"

"Well the computer's feeding the revised coordinates into the targeting computer now. It'll take time to calculate, but it should spit out two or three destinations a month," she replied.

"Let's not fool ourselves here, people. This thing is both vast and dangerous, and we are in so far over our heads we can barely see daylight. These hostiles we are up against possess technology so far superior to our own, we don't have the faintest idea how it works. We would all be much better off if the stargate had been left in the ground," Hammond said.

"With respect, sir, we can't just bury our heads in the sand," Sam spoke up. "I mean, think of how much we could learn. Think of what we could bring back."

"What you could bring back is precisely what I'm afraid of, Captain. However, the President of the United States happens to agree with you. In the event your theories pan out, he has ordered the formation of nine teams, whose duties will be to perform reconnaissance, determine threats, and if possible, to make peaceful contact with the peoples of these worlds. Now these teams will operate on a covert, top-secret basis. No-one will know of their existence, except the President and the joint chiefs. Commander Kitsuné?"

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"Your team will be designated SG-1," he began but I interrupted him. "With your permission, sir, can I request the name changed to SG-Fox?"

He blinked and paused for a moment before nodding. "Very well, but why?"

"Because it sounds better than something that sounds like it was spat out of a computer," I replied. "We should choose names that come from Earth."

"Very well, and since you suggested it, it will be your responsibility to come up with the remaining names," he ordered.

I grinned. "Yes, sir!"

"Your team will consist of yourself, Captain Carter-" he started but again, was interrupted.

"And me?" Daniel asked.

The General paused. "Dr. Jackson, we need you to work as a consultant with the other SG teams from here. Your expertise in ancient cultures and languages are far too valuable…"

"I really have to be on their team," he said stubbornly. "My wife is out there, General. I need to go."

"If I may, General," I put in, "Daniel can still train others while off duty so other teams will still have the lingo know-how and knowledge needed to help their teams."

"I'll take that under consideration," he said.

I turned to Daniel and winked at him.

"Major Kawalsky, you will head SG…?" the General began but paused and looked at me.

"Dragon," I immediately said.

"Dragon, huh?" Kawalsky repeated, sounding pleased with the name.

"Very well. You will lead SG-Dragon." At that moment an airman came into the room and handed Samuels a piece of paper. He opened it and his eyes widened. "Ferretti is conscious, sir," he reported to Hammond.

Without waiting I got out of my seat and headed to the medbay.

* * *

After getting the coordinates from Ferretti, we suited up and made our way to the gateroom with Kawalsky leading the newly dubbed SG-Dragon. Again I had left my guns back home as I wanted to avoid having to summon them to me when they would be taken from me until Sam and Teal'c had learned who I was really, and who Amy was. I had decided that I wouldn't tell them straight away, but wait for the right time. So, like before, I was packing an M9 pistol and an MP5 submachine gun. I also didn't bother with wearing a helmet, keeping my head clear.

"Commander, I'd like to remind you, in the event that you fail to notify base camp within 24 hours, SG-Dragon will scrub the mission and return without you," Samuels said.

"Got it," I replied.

"Not gonna happen, Commander. Dragon won't leave without you," Kawalsky spoke up.

Samuels looked pointedly at him before continuing. "Alright, let's confirm transmitter codes. Remember, only with the right code will open the iris, and if you lose the transmitter, you cannot get home."

"Understood, sir," Sam confirmed as we entered the gateroom.

"Chevron seven locked," Walter announced over the PA and the stargate activated.

'I wonder if I'll ever get used to seeing that activation vortex,' I mentally wondered. 'Maybe after the first 100 times.'

We looked up to get visual conformation that the mission was still on from the General. He nodded hesitantly. "Let's go people!" I called out, but hung back with Kawalski.

"I kind of wish I was going with you," Major Samuels said almost wistfully to Kawalsky.

"Yeah? I'm kind of glad you're staying behind," he replied.

I snorted softly and continued up the ramp, past the rover that had all our camping stuff attached. Kawalsky and I were the last to go through and we ended up being spat out and thrown two meters through the air before we hit the stone steps and rolled painfully to a stop.

"Stupid damn computer calibrating the wrong damn calibration!" I grunted as I wiped the considerably less frosting from my face.

"At least we're not half frozen this time. Only a little bit," Kawalsky replied as he did the same.

"Not that it matters; this place is _freezing_!" I complained loudly. "Well, I guess we'd better get started. Grab your gear and let's go."

At that point Daniel sneezed loudly. "Does anybody have a Kleenex?" he asked.

"There was no room for it next to the Mark V nuke!" I replied with a big grin. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

"I'm joking!" I replied.

"That wasn't funny," Daniel said.

"I thought it was hilarious," I chuckled.

* * *

After an hour of preparation, we were almost ready to move out. I was next to Daniel, listening to him prattle on about the area.

"It must be some sort of ceremonial place. The gate is, has to be, an integral part of their spiritual culture. This place was built for worshippers," Daniel said.

"Well I'd rather not have a bunch of pissed off fanatics on my ass so let's make this rescue quick, shall we?" I asked. "So, you figure out how to dial home yet?"

"Don't you know already?" he asked in a quiet tone.

"Well, yeah, but I gotta make sure. I never know if something different is gonna pop out at me," I replied.

"Oh… Well, in answer to your question, yeah. The device is the same as on Abydos. This symbol represents-"

"You told this to Dragon yet?"

"Yes, this symbol represents-"

"Nice going Danny," I said before walking away. I was about as interested as Jack was in the TV series about what that symbol was all about.

I walked over to Kawalsky. "We'll need to find a better spot than this," I said.

"Yeah, that's just what I was thinking," he replied.

"Sirs, I found what looks like a trail down the mountain. Looks like its seen traffic in the last couple of days," an SG-Dragon member reported.

"Nice job. With any luck, it'll lead us to a nice spot out of the way to set up base camp," I nodded. I then turned to the female member of my team. "So Sam? What have you been up to?"

"Setting a line of Claymores along the ridge at 10 meter intervals," she reported.

"Well, if we do have a bunch of raving fanatics, frothing at the mouth, on our asses, at least we can give em a friendly explosion to the face," I grinned before we all began to move to the trail, which wound itself up a large hill, with Kawalsky chuckling at my responce.

After half an hour of travel and crossing over the hill, we came across a clearing that overlooked the path on the way down. It was hidden enough so that people traveling the path wouldn't know that the clearing was there, unless they were looking for it.

"Ok, if we're not back in 20 hours-" I began.

"We'll come rescue your sorry asses," Kawalsky grinned.

"I wish, but that's not our orders this time. You'll go back through the gate with the address Daniel told you, as you were ordered," I said firmly.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

"If we don't make it back, it's cause we got owned big time and that we're either captured or dead." I was tempted to throw in a Caboose line from Red vs Blue, but realised that now was not the time, so I settled for thinking it ('Or captured _and_ dead!') making Amy giggle at the humour.

"All right. Stay safe," I said.

"Pick me up a t-shirt," he responded.

I snorted. "Yeah, one that says 'I am your one true god!' See how these assholes like that," I grinned, which was mirrored by him. I then took my team and we moved further down the hill. It wasn't long before someone struck up a conversation.

"So, Dr. Jackson, tell me more about Sha're," she asked. "How did you meet?"

"Sha're? Well, she's-" Daniel began.

"She was a gift to the lucky sod," I interrupted.

"She was, actually, from the elders of Abydos the first night we were there," he confirmed.

"And you accepted?" he asked incredulously.

"Well he didn't really get it at the time until she flashed him her boobs. He got the message pretty quickly at that moment," I grinned.

"Oi!" Daniel squawked in indignation at the private moment I had just disclosed.

"But by then it was too late. They thought he was Ra, or a messenger from Ra, which was the reason for gifting Sha're to Daniel. By the time this was rectified, the two had already fallen in love, so they stayed together," I finished up. But then I spotted movement. "Hold up for a minute!" I whispered loudly.

"What?" Daniel asked as I moved off the track, with Sam pulling him with us.

We spied the group of heavy robed people making their way along the path. "See any weapons?" I asked Sam.

"No, sir," she replied.

"They're worshipers," Daniel said as they came into clearer view. They certainly looked the part with their snake head tipped staffs and their monk like robes. "Ok, here's the plan-" I began, but broke off as I saw that Daniel had already left.

"And here we go again," I sighed. Even though I knew that, as far as I and Amy knew, this was the only way to get Teal'c over to our side, it was still a little annoying that he didn't wait.

The priests continued to walk on until Daniel said hi to them. "Uhh… We just came through the stargate… uhh… the chaapa'ai?"

"Chaapa'ai!" the one in the front cried out and the group fell on their knees.

"No no, please don't… *sigh* do that," Daniel replied to this gesture. I decided to intervene at this point.

"Already making friends with the locals in the hopes of scoring some more alien booty, are we?" I asked with a grin. I didn't have my MP5 ready to shoot and Sam took her cue from me.

"No," Daniel replied heatedly. "Please, you don't have to do this," he said as he pulled the priest who had spoken to his feet. He pulled back his hood, identifying him and his brothers as belonging to Apophis.

"Chula asla," the priest at the front said.

After a moment, Daniel recognised the words. "'Choose.' They want to know if we're here to choose," he said, looking at me. I shrugged.

"Ahh, sure! Sure, choosing is good," he replied. But it was clear the priest had no idea what he just said. "It's a derivation of Arabic, combined with-"

"Not on my list of things to know right now, Daniel. What is, however, is if there's a town nearby and if they can take us there," I replied.

"Ahh… would you take us to… uhh, ahh… would you take us to… Arrish? Arrish?" Daniel asked as he made a house like gesture with his hands.

"Chulak!" he replied. He then beckoned for us to follow him while repeating the word.

"I guess we're off to Chulak then," I said before leading the way for my team.

After another half hour of walking we came across a stone built city on top of a hill. "Chulak!" the priest said as he pointed at the town.

"Chulak. Sounds good," Daniel said as we continued on, our sights fixed on the city.

"Not very Egyptian is it. More like Ancient Greek," I said myself. "It's like these guys don't know which ancient culture to barrack for. We've got Arabic in the lingo and ancient Greek in the architecture."

After we entered the city, with the inhabitants all looking at us, we were led to a grand looking building, the palace, as I remembered from watching the Children of the Gods episode. Inside we were moved to a room full of people in white gowns and dresses. It was like I had stepped into an Ancient Greek documentary.

The priest spoke a line of alien dialogue, probably announcing us. It did the trick as they all looked at us and began chattering away as we sat down.

"A little embarrassing," I murmured as I took in all their faces. I then met the eyes of a few gorgeous women and saw them flush up slightly. "But then again, it's not so bad," I grinned as I stroked my goatee and gazed at a particular raven haired beauty suggestively.

"Why are they treating us like this?" Sam asked me.

"They think we're gods," Daniel answered.

"Well that'll make things easier," I replied.

"Make what easier?" Sam asked.

"Getting a one night stand with that sexy raven over there," I replied, not taking my eyes off her. She responded by lightly licking her lips and giving me a lusty look. 'Hoo boy!' I thought as I began to get hard. I was never this successful at attracting ladies back home. Probably because I didn't look anything like I did now. I was sort of confident in my chat up skills, but my looks held me back from experience as well as getting any action.

"Great," Sam sighed.

"This is a feast of some kind. Apparently, someone's been expected," Daniel noted.

At that point a guy with a massive horn blew a loud, low note that sounded like someone passing gas. "Ok, who farted?" I asked with a grin. But I stopped smiling when I saw that no one else was smiling either. In fact they all bowed down in prostration. Daniel was the first to pick up on it, then Sam. I stayed sitting.

"When in Rome…" Daniel left it hanging. I sighed before moving into a prostrating position myself, but kept my eyes up front, waiting for the inevitable as I heard the sound of many steel boots clanging towards us. Then six serpent guards moved into view, with two as guards at the entrance and the remaining four taking up positions in the corners of the room.

Then I saw Teal'c for the first time. The guy was buff for sure, but he still looked ridiculous in the jaffa metal armour. They all did, with only the helmets having any kind of intimidation. And even then they still looked kinda comical.

He then spoke several words, two of which I recognised; Goa'uld and Apophis. He then walked to the side to make way for a man wearing gold and a woman who wore a white veil.

'Apophis really does look like he's dressed for the Mardi Gra,' I thought in humour with Amy cracking up loudly. This made it very hard for me to control my grins.

"Behold," Apophis began grandly as he turned to the woman and lifted her veil. "your Queen."

'And here we go,' I mentally sighed.

"Sha're?" Daniel murmured before he scrambled to his feel.

'And there he goes,' I finished up.

"Sha're, thank God, I thought we'd never…" Daniel began but Apophis cut him off.

"Kneel before your Queen!" he ordered, seemingly uncurious at Daniel's strange, to him, clothes.

"Sha're, it's me!" Daniel said. However his wife responded with the classic Goa'uld possession stare, the glowy eyes. Then Apophis threw him across the room with his alien Power Glove. He slammed hard into the wall and slid down it, unconscious. I rose from my spot, MP5 in hand, but Sha're stood in front of my target. Not that it would've mattered, since Golden Gayface probably had that annoying shield that was kinetically sensitive. And then a sharp pain spread out from the back of my head for a moment before all went black.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of Skaara calling for me to wake up. I knew it was Skaara because 1) I recognised his voice and 2) he was saying my name wrong.

"Ahh, my head!" I groaned as I sat up, and immediately regretted doing so as all the blood in my head moved around and through the sizable bruise on the back of my head.

"Kitune!" Skaara gasped in relief.

"Give me a sec kiddo," I replied before placing my right palm over the bruise and started performing Reiki on it. And I blinked in surprise as the pain quickly ebbed away and the swelling reduced itself until, 20 seconds later, it was all gone.

'Wow! Those Ancient powers you gave me are really something!' I mentally said.

"**Glad they could help,"** she replied.

"Hey Skaara," I grinned as I withdrew my hand from my head and clapped it on the boy's shoulder in a friendly greeting. "Good to see you're still around." I then stood up and took a look around. We were in a dark room made of large stone bricks. On one side there was a short flight of steps leading up to a large cross barred gate that was currently closed. And in the room was perhaps a few dozen men and women.

"Where's Sam? And Daniel?" I asked.

"She is over there with Daniel," Skaara replied, pointing through the crowd. I nodded and walked over to the spot Skaara pointed at. There I saw Sam kneeling next to a prone Daniel.

"Sam," I said as I reached her. She turned around and quickly stood up. "Sir," she greeted.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"A few hours," she reported. "I wasn't knocked out so I've been awake the whole time. When we got here, I let the boy you knew watch over you while I did the same for Daniel."

"Right. Well, see if you can wake him up. I'm gonna have a look around," I said.

"Yes, sir," she replied before starting to gently shake Daniel awake.

After about 20 minutes of looking around, but already knowing that there was no conventional way out, and explaining what had happened to Sha're without confusing him, I heard Daniel coughing.

'I guess Daniel has just realised how hard those kinetic blasts hurt,' I thought to myself before walking over to where they were with Skaara following me.

"I doubt there's a secret door to the prison cell we're in, so for the moment, we're stuck sitting on our asses," I said to them.

"Daniel! You're okay!" Skaara pushed forward to embrace the archaeologist.

"I think so," he replied shakily and coughed once before drooping in Skaara's arms. We then helped him back to his seat.

"Take it easy for a bit, Danny. You're lucky that kinetic blast didn't kill you when you went slamming into the wall," I said.

"Kitune told me about Sha're," Skaara said.

"Josh, help me. We can find her again…" Daniel started.

"Daniel… I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but she's got one of those things inside of her. If the eyes glow, it's true. And I doubt those things would leave willingly from their hosts. I'm sorry," I replied.

"But…"

"Daniel!" I said forcefully, giving him a look that clearly said that I would fill him in later. He took the hint.

"So, you still got that transmitter?" I asked Sam.

"Yeah."

"We might need to smash it. If we can't get outta here, the mission's a bust anyway, and we don't want Golden Gayface to get his hands on that thing," I said.

"Well, he still wouldn't know the code. There's half a billion permutations," she replied.

I sighed. "I'm not insulting your level of nerdiness, but these guys have spaceships. I'm pretty sure they could figure out the code before it's locked out." She then looked a little sheepish for not think about that beforehand.

"Ok, now let's see if we can find a way outta here on the 14th lap of this place," I muttered before my arm was wrenched up by an armoured hand with an iron grip.

"Owowowowowow!" I cried out and looked at the face of a Serpent guard.

"What is this?" he asked, and I recognised Teal'c's voice from inside.

I looked down to see that it was the Air Force issued LCD digital watch around my wrist.

"It's called a watch. Tells me the time," I replied.

Teal'c then half pushed back his helmet to get a better look at it. He then pulled me closer. "Where are you from?"

"Earth," I replied.

"Your word means nothing. Where are you from?" he repeated.

"I just told you," I deadpanned a reply.

"Ahh, excuse me," Daniel interrupted before drawing the Earth point-of-origin symbol in the sand. "This is where we're from," he said.

Teal'c took a long look before he rubbed the symbol out with the end of his staff. He then stepped back and walked out of the room, flanked by two other Serpent guards.

"Now wasn't he a nice guy," I said sarcastically.

"What do you think that was about?" Daniel asked me. I just shrugged non-committedly.

* * *

Daylight streamed through the very small window holes that lined the top of the cell we were all in. The night had been very cold, but I pitied Kawalsky and the others who were outside. At least we had a few fire torches in the cell giving out a small amount of heat.

I was still looking around the place and had hoisted myself up to one of the little windows. Couldn't see much outside; just some grass, stone, gravel, dirt and trees. I lowered myself down, landing next to Skaara.

"Sha're is dead?" he asked.

"Ahh… yes and no… It's a difficult thing to explain kiddo," I replied.

"We will save her," he stated.

"No promises on that. We need a way out first."

"But you are great warrior! Together we defeated Ra!" he protested.

"Yeah, but we caught Ra with his pants down, taking a dump! And we had a lot of help from your people. Here, we're captured and alone. We'll try, but I can't guarantee anything, ok?" I asked. He nodded.

A loud scraping sound alerted us to the gates of our cell opening. I pulled Skaara over to where Daniel and Sam were at as we watched Serpent Guards stream in, followed by Teal'c.

"Shalaha krehomel Goa'uld!" he called out.

"Do you know what he said?" I asked Skaara.

"They're going to choose," he replied, despair creeping into his tone.

"Choose what?" Sam asked.

"Who will be the children of the Gods," he finished.

Behind the line of Serpent guards, a procession of finely dressed people, along with a carriage carried by four strongly built men, filtered in. The carriage was lowered and Golden Gayface stepped out. He took a moment to survey us all before he turned and helped his queen out.

"Sha're… Josh, help me, please!" Daniel urged but Sam and I held him back. "Now is not the time," I replied back and he got the message, relaxing his body. But we still kept a hold of him.

Teal'c spoke at length in Goa'uld as the carriage carriers ran out into the crowd and began pushing us all to the ground. "Kneel before your masters!" Teal'c finished in English.

'Hey Amy, how is it that these guys know English anyways?' I asked.

"**They know because we know. What you know as English, in this universe, it's derived from the language we, the Ancients, spoke. That's how. You'll notice that some speak quite formally?"** Amy asked.

'Yeah, I did notice that,' I replied.

"**That's because for those people, the language hasn't evolved as much as it has for people on Earth. On Earth, the language has evolved a lot more because each new generation brings new slang words to the mix. Not so with others. For some, the language is more traditional,"** she explained.

'Ahh, I see,' I replied as Sam and Daniel were forced into kneeling on the ground. I glanced at Teal'c and saw him slowly nod at me. I nod back at him before voluntarily kneeling myself. "Skaara," I said to the kid. He looked at me before complying.

We watched as the Goa'ulds began to walk down into the cell, observing us all. The servants occasionally brought out a person to be inspected. Some were rejected, some were accepted. I looked at Teal'c to see him show silent disgust at what was happening.

'Well, at least he still feels the same as he did in the TV series,' I thought.

One of the males walked past and Daniel reached out and grabbed his arm. I rose to pull him off, but was met with two primed staff weapons.

"This one is passionate," the goa'uld said in that deep, weird vocal tone that all goa'uld had.

"How much would I remember if you chose me?" Daniel asked desperately. "Tell me!"

The guy slowly bent down and smirked. "Something of the host must survive," Daniel said, on the verge of crying.

"Nothing!" he replied before he was pushed back. Daniel just sat there, sobbing quietly. Then the guy pointed at Skaara. "Him."

We all froze as the implication of what he said sunk in. Then a servant moved forward and hauled him away, with Skaara crying out in Abydonian the whole time.

"Skaara!" I called to him, but got a swipe over the face from a staff as my answer.

"Kitune! Kitune! Kitune!" Skaara called out to me as he was moved past Apophis and Amunet. It seemed he was the last one to be chosen as the Serpent guards walked up the stairs and stood ready.

"Kill the rest," Apophis smiled and everyone began to scream and cry out in fear. They all scrambled to the back of the cell while Sam, Daniel and I rose but did not panic. We watched the goa'uld leave, along with most of the guards, leaving only 6 along with Teal'c, to kill us all.

'I hope this works,' I thought before I walked forward. "Help me save these people!" I called to Teal'c, who spun around and primed his staff at me. "Please, help me. I know you are as disgusted as I am about what they do here," I said as I looked him dead in the eye, unflinchingly. "Help me free these innocent people."

"Many have said that!" Teal'c replied as I continued to stare him down. He did the same before he swiftly turned his body and blasted the nearest Serpent guard in the chest, sparks shooting off the point of impact.

"But you are the first I believed could do it!" he called out as he tossed his weapon to me. I immediately found the firing button and blasted a nearby guard. The rest quickly open fired on us all. I then fired a second time and a third time, downing two more guards. Teal'c had managed to pick up a staff from a dead guard and quickly finished off the remaining two.

Jaffa warriors swarmed at the cell gate, but a few staff blasts quickly forced them to retreat. I then turned around and pointed at the wall. "Out of the way now!" I ordered and the people in the way scattered, leaving the path open. I fired several precision shots in a square shape to open a large hole for everyone to start leaving the room. Sam and I ran forward to make sure the outside was clear before we ducked back inside.

"Come on, let's move!" I called out as Sam took point, leading the liberated prisoners out of the cell. They quickly began to filter out through the gaping hole. Soon almost all of them were out. Daniel moved over to me.

"You ok?" I asked. He hesitated but nodded, not trusting his voice. "Don't worry, that jackass was lying."

He looked back at me sharply. "Really?" he asked, hope sinking back into his voice.

"Yeah," I nodded with a grin. I then pushed him out of the hole before turning back to see Teal'c, who was discarding pieces of his armour, along with the metal cap over his bald head.

"You coming or what?" I called to him.

He hesitated for a moment before replying. "I have nowhere to go."

"Don't worry, you can bunk with us," I replied with a friendly smile. He then began to slowly walk over to me, picking up speed.

"So what's your name?" I asked as he moved through the hole.

"Teal'c," the ex-First Prime replied.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Commander Josh Kitsuné," I replied as I stuck out my hand. He responded by grasping half my arm strongly in a kind of warrior handshake. "Wasn't what I was expecting, but ok. Now, where will they take the boy I was with, Skaara?"

"To the stargate," he replied as we began to move swiftly with the others. "After they've selected hosts for their children, they will return home."

After we reached a short outcrop of flat land, we were about 15 minutes from the base camp. "We've got less than an hour. How are we doing?" I asked.

"We lost a few when we reached the forest," Sam replied.

"Well that's to be expected, I guess. Though I have doubts they'll survive long," I said.

"They will be hunted down and killed," Teal'c agreed. "Anyone who does not exist to serve the gods is their enemy."

"Yeah, so what does that make you?" I asked.

"I am a Jaffa. Bred to serve, that they may live," he replied.

"I don't understand," Daniel said, confused.

Teal'c stopped and I braced myself for what was coming next. He parted the lower section of his chainmail shirt to show a cross shaped hole in his stomach. And the thing that was poking its way through the hole.

Everyone nearby gave a short scream and I recoiled violently. "Fucking hell, man!" I cursed.

"What the hell is that?" Daniel asked.

"It is an infant Goa'uld, the larval form of the gods," Teal'c explained. "I have carried one since I was a child, as all Jaffa carry one."

"Damn! That's nasty man! Put that thing away!" I said, sickened by the sight. Teal'c complied by allowing the snake to retreat back inside before pulling the chainmail back over the hole.

"This is the twelfth I have carried," he said.

"Well, can't you ditch it or something?" I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment. "In exchange for carrying the infant Goa'uld until maturity, a Jaffa receives perfect health and long life. If I were to remove it, I would eventually die."

"Man, that blows," I replied.

"Why are you helping us?" Sam asked.

"The Goa'uld are conquerors, nothing more. Not worthy of worship or sacrifice. You are the first to come along with powers that approach theirs," Teal'c said.

"We don't have spaceships, you know," I said.

"You are strong, perhaps strong enough to destroy them," Teal'c assured me.

At that point two Death Gliders and an Al'kesh flew over our heads, most likely carrying the Goa'uld kids and Golden Gayface himself.

"All righty, time to step it up, people. Let's go! Move!" I urged loudly. Everyone began to scramble up the hill.

Teal'c walked over to me. "The boy you seek is no longer who he was," he said. I didn't say anything in return, just looked at him before continuing on.

We were coming up to the last ridge before the gate when the fighter escort the Al'kesh had, came back. "Get down!" I called out as the fighters began bombarding the area with energy blasts, sending up dirt and rock every time the shots hit the ground. A few people were downed on the first pass.

By the time the fighters were coming around for their second pass, most of the prisoners had taken cover in the trees. Teal'c and I knelt on the ground and began firing at the ships. I managed to catch one of them right in the face, sending black smoke trailing behind it. The other lined up his shots and began blasting away at us again.

As they passed over, the smoking one smashed into the ground some distance away while the second one prepared for a third pass.

"Commander, we're sitting ducks here!" Sam called over.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" I yelled back. Teal'c and I readied our weapons and began firing at the last, hoping to get another lucky shot. However a new sound reached my ears and I saw a rocket shoot over our heads and explode into the second fighter, knocking out one engine. It then span out of control and hit the ground in a ball of fire.

Everyone began cheering and I looked behind me to see Kawalsky and his team cheering on the ridge. "BOOYAA!" I whooped as I pumped my fist into the air. I then turned to the prisoners. "C'mon everyone! Up the hill!" I called before we jogged over to SG-Dragon.

"Nice shooting Tex," I grinned as we met up with Kawalsky. "How many are there?"

"A dozen, maybe more," he reported. "They're going back through the gate."

"And Skaara?" I asked.

"He's with them," he confirmed.

We then scrambled up the hill with Kawalsky shouting orders to his team. We reached the top of the ridge, only to see the last three Goa'uld about to pass through the gate.

"Skaara!" I called out and he turned around to look at me, only to smirk and glow his eyes before he and the others stepped through the gate.

"Ahh, crap," I sighed before we made our way down the ridge as the stargate powered off. We began to slowly make our way over to the stargate.

"Sir, we got hostiles coming out of the trees!" a member of Dragon reported into his radio before he and his buddy started firing. I could hear the sound of energy blasts whizzing through the air, making that very recognisable sound as they did so.

"Ok people, we're going on a little fieldtrip," Kawalsky advised the refugees.

"Daniel, start dialling us home," I said before turning to Sam. "Get your Claymores ready and give em to Kawalsky." She immediately retrieved the fuse box and passed it to Kawalsky.

"Me and Casey and Warren'll be the last men out," Kawalsky said as he took the charges from Sam.

"Nuh-uh, that's my job," I overruled him before looking back at Sam. "Once Daniel gets that gate open I want you to send the signal and go through with him. Let the General we're bringing in refugees."

"Let's go, move, move, move!" Kawalsky urged the crowd to follow us.

"We can't hold them sir!" Casey said on the radio.

"Get them off that ridge!" I advised Kawalsky.

"Fall back, fall back. Now!" he ordered as he and a few others skidded to a halt behind some rocks.

"Daniel! Hurry the hell up!" I said as I watched him slowly press the correct buttons in. The sound of gunfire alerted me to the ridge and I ran over to some cover and began to use my staff weapon to lay down covering fire. A few more moments of this and the ridge was now swarming with Jaffa.

"Give them a little friendly greeting, would you?" I called over to Kawalsky. In return he zapped the fuse once and the entire ridge erupted into explosions, blasting several Jaffa away. He then zapped a second time and the second line of Claymores went off, sending more enemy soldiers tumbling down the ridge.

"Captain, let's get these people out of here now! Move!" Kawalsky ordered Sam. She nodded as he sprang out of cover to back us up.

"Give me a few seconds then start sending them through," she told Daniel before she bolted through the gate.

After a few seconds went past, the first pair of refugees went through, and it continued like that as Kawalsky, Teal'c and I along with Casey and Warren continued to hold the line. I caught something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see one of the refus hurl rocks at them. I looked in the direction he was throwing and saw one brain a Jaffa, downing him. He threw his hands in the air in triumph.

"Yes, yes, very nice," I replied before I blasted an advancing enemy in the face. "Booya! In the face!" I crowed out before seeking out the next target.

"That's it!" I heard Daniel call to me.

"Get through! We'll be through in a minute!" I called back. I then turned to the front. "Casey, Warren, fall back!" I ordered.

We all moved to our feet and converged onto the stargate, Jaffa quickly surrounding us. An energy blast struck Casey at the ground in front of him, sending him to the ground.

"Casey!" Kawalsky called out and he ran over to his teammate. I went over and helped Kawalsky haul Casey to his feet. "Come on, move your ass!" I growled as energy blasts impacted all around us.

We moved past the DHD, but Casey tripped and fell. In response I turned and put a shot through a Jaffa who was a meter away from me. Warren fired off a few more rounds before he too went through.

Next to go were Teal'c and the stone throwing guy. They made it through without injuries. I then helped Kawalsky with Casey and we charged through the event horizon.

We emerged through the other side and Sam immediately told the techs to lock it up. I turned to see the iris slide into place over the wormhole. After one second of the iris locking in place, there were two loud clangs against the shield before the wormhole disengaged.

I gave a long sigh of relief as the iris slid away back into the stargate. I turned to see two medics move to Casey's side and Kawalsky fussing over his teammate, who looked to just be injured at the legs and a little shaken. I moved away from them, and was immediately swamped by all the refugees hugging me and Sam. I smiled and nodded as we pushed our way through them.

"Commander Kitsuné, care to explain?" Hammond asked as I pushed through the last few people.

"Uh, we can use the stargate to send these people home, sir," Samantha assured the boss.

"What's he doing here?" he asked angrily as he pointed to Teal'c.

I walked over and placed my hand on the Jaffa's shoulder. "General Hammond, this is Teal'c," I introduced formally. "He can help us."

"Do you know what he is?" he almost yelled at me.

"He's the man who saved all of our lives. And if you accept my recommendation, sir, he'll join SG-Fox," I replied.

Hammond looked a lot more placated at this bit of info. "That decision may not be up to you," he cautioned before Samuels ordered everyone to stand away as the medics got Casey onto a stretcher and off the ramp. The refugees also began to walk off the ramp, making some space.

"Commander Kitsuné, Major Kawalsky," the General gained our attention. "The sure-to-be-very-interesting debriefing of SG units Fox and Dragon will be at 0730."

"Yes, sir," both Kawalsky and I said at the same time.

"Alright, let's get these people situated. This way," Samuels ordered as he led the way for the refugees down the corridor outside the gate room.

There was silence between us all. "She's out there somewhere, Josh," Daniel said.

"Yeah, so is Skaara," I replied. "We'll see them again."

"Don't you mean we'll get them back?" he asked.

"You know I can't promise that. But we will see them again," I repeated, silently promising him that we would. "Isn't that better than not knowing?"

Daniel smiled as he remembered the same words I had said before. "Right," he nodded. I clapped him on the shoulder before walking off the ramp with Teal'c, Sam and Daniel following.


End file.
